--- title: Marco Rubio Iowa Football Throw: Here's What Child Said Following Hit description: The Iowa four-year-old hit in the face with a football thrown by Marco Rubio challenged the presidential candidate to play again canonical: https://time.com/4003765/iowa-football-rubio/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-19T19:53:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T10:17:50.006Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's What Kid Hit in the Face by Marco Rubio's Football Has to Say og:description: The 4-year-old is not backing down og:url: https://time.com/4003765/iowa-football-rubio/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What Kid Hit in the Face by Marco Rubio's Football Has to Say twitter:description: The 4-year-old is not backing down twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Here's What the Kid Hit in the Face by Marco Rubio's Football Pass Has to Say  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Aug 19, 2015 7:53 PM UTC  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Aug 19, 2015 7:53 PM UTC The Iowa 4-year-old [hit in the face with a football](http://time.com/4001978/marco-rubio-kid-football/) thrown by Florida Senator Marco Rubio challenged the presidential candidate to play again. “Hey Rubio, when you get back to Iowa I’ll be ready for you Rubio,” the young boy said in a video posted on Twitter by his uncle, State Senator Jack Whitver, on Wednesday. The original ill-fated throw came during a Tuesday campaign stop in Iowa and quickly became a viral gif. The child survived the hit unscathed, according to media reports. > [](https://twitter.com/jackwhitver/status/634059633808683008) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4003765/iowa-football-rubio/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4003765/iowa-football-rubio/"},"headline":"Here's What the Kid Hit in the Face by Marco Rubio's Football Pass Has to Say","datePublished":"2015-08-19T19:53:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:17:50.006Z","description":"The original video went viral on Tuesday","url":"https://time.com/4003765/iowa-football-rubio/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4003765/iowa-football-rubio/","name":"Here's What the Kid Hit in the Face by Marco Rubio's Football Pass Has to Say"}}]}] ```