There’s a lot of lore that goes with Joe Mauer being from the state of Minnesota. Not only was he a tremendous high school baseball player — he struck out just once in his career — and pretty good at basketball, but he was also a pretty darn good quarterback, too.

Mauer actually spurned, if you can call it that, the scholarship offer from Bobby Bowden to play for the Florida State Seminoles to sign with the hometown Minnesota Twins.

That’s a pretty easy decision when you’re the No. 1 overall pick in the MLB draft, of course. For fun, here’s a story on Joe committing to Florida State, where he’d have played both sports.

Nevertheless, it’s one thing to hear stories about what Mauer was capable of on the gridiron. It’s another to see them with your own eyes.

A few years back, I found an old video of Mauer’s final high school football game. It’s clear he’s a man among boys on the field even in a losing effort in the Prep Bowl, as the zip on his passes makes it clear he had a special right arm from the get go.

So sit back and enjoy watching Mauer play a little high school football from over 16 years ago.