Don’t do it. Really. It’s not a good idea.
Every year National Signing Day rolls around, I turn into a broken record. It can’t be helped. I wish it could, but no.
So I’ll go ahead and offer my usual public service announcement. If you’re out here sending messages to football recruits about where they chose to play via social media, you’re a loser. Simple as that.
I don’t care if that five-star quarterback was committed to your team for almost a year then suddenly changed his mind. Nor will I entertain this ridiculous notion that a verbal commitment is set in stone.
It’s easy to forget that we’re dealing with 17-18 year-old kids here. And spare me the arguments about 18 being the magic age of adulthood. Anyone with any measure of sense knows we aren’t talking about grown people.
For some of these guys, signing that letter of intent is the toughest decision they’ve ever made. It dictates where they’ll be spending the next three to five years of their lives.
So yeah, recruits have the right to change their minds as many times as they wish. It’s their decision. Not Johnny Superfan’s.
Some of you loyal readers may be asking “how can I help stop this epidemic?” Why that’s very simple. Whenever you come into contact with one of these “fans,” clown them. Unmercifully.
In fact, let’s not even call them fans. They’re trolls. Unfortunate dregs looking to elicit a response.
Their primitive dialect of message board-speak goes something like this.
If a kid spurns the home school in favor of an out-of-state location, then he is a “traitor.” Interesting. Because logic would have us believe that all the out of staters on your team’s roster are also “traitors.” I’ll take self-serving moral judgments for 100, Alex.
Or better yet, after getting turned down by a recruit, the trolls are fond of the “you would have been so good with my team but at that school you won’t play” rebuttal. So you’re basically saying your squad sucks. Go team.
And if you really want to blow their minds, let them know that tweeting a recruit is actually an NCAA violation. Whoops.
Recruiting is hard enough as it is. Between the coaches, agents and other assorted sycophants, players don’t need verbal abuse from internet trolls on top of that.
But if you’re dead set on embarrassing yourself, save your butthurt for “Stinky and the Coach’s Afternoon Sports Holocaust” on your FM dial. You know the number. In fact, I bet they expect your call anytime now.
College football doesn’t need fans like that. And once you figure that out, the better off we all are going to be.