Six-year-old American footballer absolutely obliterates his competition, but the performance has divided people online

A video of a six-year-old American footballer dominating his opponents has gone viral on social media - but people are divided over the youngster's performance.

According to news.com.au, the video went viral after being shared on ESPN's Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as the NFL-focused PFF page.

The video, which has amassed over 3.2 million views on PFF's page alone, shows a six-year-old athletically-blessed youngster flooring challenger after challenger as he runs for the touchdown. In fact, in the 23-second clip, the unnamed kid wipes out five players from the opposing team.

Check out the impressive - and intimidating - performance below:

PFF jokingly captioned the video: "With the 1st pick in the 2037 NFL Draft…" - and you have to believe that we are watching an American football prodigy in front of our eyes.

Many Twitter users were equally as impressed, with one person writing: "The Jets are clearing locker space now….only because they’ll still be first on the clock."

A second added: "2037? Why wait, this little guy could play now for the Lions."

And a third tweeted: "Play of the decade... never will be done again. He poked 5 of emm!!!!! Sound the alarm."

Many people also joked that we were watching Derrick Henry's tapes from when he was a child.

As well as comments from impressed viewers, there were also plenty of memes:

However, despite the kids in the video being just six years old (let's face it, the run was never going to be pretty), many people found the child's tackling style too rough for players of such a young age.

One critic tweeted: "That’s ridiculous. Kids should not be stiff arming other kids in the helmet. This is one of the reasons less kids are playing football these days. Too violent. And parents cheering it on. Pathetic"

And over on the ESPN Facebook page, one person commented: "Why are 6-year-olds playing tackle football? This is not good parenting. There’s absolutely no reason for kids to need to play tackle before high school. Tom Brady didn’t play tackle until high school, look how long his career is. These parents need to reevaluate their thought processes."

Nevertheless, there were a lot more supporters of the young athletes, with many people speaking out in defense of the kid, explaining that this sort of thing helps kids learn how to tackle.

"As a fellow football player stiff arming is really fun and that’s how kids learn not to stand straight up when trying to tackle someone," one Twitter user wrote.

And a Facebook user agreed, adding: "Be good if they taught the kids how to tackle properly [...] hard and around the legs, get under the palm."

What are your thoughts on the young up-and-comer? Let us know in the comments section.

Featured image credit: Danny Hooks / Alamy