Reading Man Invents Recreational Football Throwing Machine

READING, PA (CBS) --  Tossing a football around on the lawn is a pastime that most of us have enjoyed at one time or another.

But for Fred Hafer, throwing a football to his son Peter launched an idea into the future... like a ball out of a cannon.

A local engineer from Reading, this thinker began to tinker on what the world would view as the first recreational football throwing machine.

He calls it The BallCannon.

You can change the speeds with a simple twist of a dial so the throws don't always have to be spiral.

Hafer says it can even simulate a punt.

Now catch this, the pros use something similar, but those machines dropped the ball on this detail.

"The commercial grade units don't have an automatic ball delivery system on them. With our system, because it's a motorized carriage, you don't need that other person," Hafer expains.

So how did Hafer take all of his ideas and turn it into a score?

Well, first a team of supporters raised $20,000 on Kickstarter to help launch the BallCannon.

Hafer then patented the idea and put in play.

It was well received by Hasbro, one of the largest toy companies in the nation, calling the product ingenius.

But Hafer says he definitely wouldn't call himself a genius.

He says he's like so many parents out there who just wanted to help out their child, who's now getting kids and adults to play more outside.