Child's play leads to dream fulfilled for Rams' Austin
LOS ANGELES_It was a thin strip of grass on the median of Tioga Parkway, a bustling West Baltimore thoroughfare.
They called it the Middle Piece.
Measuring perhaps 35 yards long and 15 yards wide, the urban patch served as a makeshift football field for generations of Tavon Austin's relatives and neighborhood kids.
It was there - with cars, trucks and buses dangerously rumbling past on both sides - that the diminutive Austin began to develop the moves, vision and will to become a first-round NFL draft pick for the Rams.
Sometimes cousins and boys older than Austin chose up sides for games. They played against each other and other neighborhoods.
But often, the game of choice was "throw-up tackle." The ball was tossed into the air, and whoever caught it
