Recruiting World Run Amuck

Since when did recruits tell Universities what to do and when to do it? It’s like those strange pictures you stared at as a kid trying to figure out what doesn’t fit. I’ve been ignorant on many occasions and let this be yet another because I was grossly unaware that high school football players could do what was reportedly done by  Lakewood High quarterback Jesse Scroggins. Apparently, according to the LA Times, Scroggins imposed a Saturday morning deadline for the Trojans to name a replacement for Coach Pete Carroll. Well, Saturday is only days away and the Trojans are hard at work following boss’ orders???? Misplaced question marks denote a statement made with interrogative inflection because I’m seriously confused.

I know recruiting is the difference between starting Matt Barkley or the back-up guy who simply waited his turn but I didn’t know the high school guys had so much pull. It makes me wonder what other items are on the list of expectations that seals the deal for a university to land a top recruit. There’s that “Money Makes the World Go ‘Round” allegiance rearing its head again. See, I’m the guy people always told to get real. What world do you live in Norman? This is business homie, with real dollars at stake as if my orientation to paper currency was limited to the Monopoly sort…miniature bills and funny colors. I know exactly what money looks like and have been tempted by it regularly. But isn’t there a natural repulsion when a bratty kid, no matter how gifted, tells grown folks what to do?

It’s that basic to me in principle. I don’t care what Pete Carroll has done; no recruit should ever be quoted as having given an order to a educational institution. It’s representative of the irreverence cultivated by avarice. Show me the money and I’ll do whatever you like young sir. Wrong. You can play football at our school or don’t let the door hit you…on the way out. Manipulation is manipulation no matter the euphemism and while it is always a cheap tactic, it’s down right insulting when it’s practiced by guys barely old enough to vote.