Football recruit picks Kansas State after his mom tackles him in a viral video
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- At a high school ceremony, Joseph Graves announced he will play for K‑State.
- A video of his mom tackling him during a Kansas State campus visit went viral.
- Graves is a three-star 2027 defensive lineman who held multiple Power Five offers.
Joseph Graves doesn’t usually get tackled on the football field.
The 6-foot-2 and 285-pound defensive lineman from IMG Academy in Florida is a heralded recruit because he can hit and drive playmakers to the ground as well as just about any other high school prospect in the class of 2027.
But he experienced what it was like to be on the receiving end of a hard hit last week ... from his mother.
It happened while he was making a campus visit to Kansas State. Graves was wearing the team’s road white uniforms and posing for pictures at midfield inside Bill Snyder Family Stadium — when his mother, who was fitted in a K-State helmet and pads, came charging in to tackle her son.
Graves, who perhaps exaggerated the severity of the hit, fell on his side and slowly rose to his feet as his mom celebrated the play.
“I was a bit surprised,” Graves said later. “I didn’t expect her to hit me that hard.”
A video of the tackle soon arrived on social media, and it went viral. As of Thursday afternoon, it had been viewed nearly 4 million times on X.
The mom tackle has also been discussed and showed on ESPN and other mainstream networks.
K-State fans are hoping that was the first of many memorable moments that Graves will deliver in Manhattan.
Graves, who is originally from Tulsa, announced his intentions to play for K-State at a ceremony inside his high school on Thursday. The three-star recruit chose K-State over North Carolina State, but he also held scholarship offers from Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Texas A&M and others.
He said he made his decision shortly after making his visit to K-State, explaining “it felt like home” during his announcement ceremony.
Graves went on to tell Rivals that “I’m a young guy who is going to come in and play early and win.”
He is a consensus top 150 player at his position, with ESPN rating him as high as No. 52 nationally among all defensive tackles in his grade.
Graves made 82 tackles, including 18 sacks, as a sophomore at Booker T. Washington in Tulsa. Then he made 26 tackles, including three sacks, as a junior after he transferred to IMG Academy.
He will look to continue making big plays on defense when he arrives at K-State next year, just like his mother already has.
This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 5:18 PM with the headline "Football recruit picks Kansas State after his mom tackles him in a viral video."