It’s easy to forget. Amid all the blog posts and Twitter trends, rumors and online screeds, sports fans who get wrapped up in college football’s National Signing Day tend to lose sight of the fact that we’re talking about 17- and 18-year-old kids here.
To put that into perspective, consider that this year’s three-, four- and five-star signees were born the same year as the O.J. Simpson trial; the year Alanis Morissette shot up the charts with an ex-boyfriend song; and the year "Toy Story" topped the box office.
This year’s recruits — the young men who are the subject of hundreds of chat-room discussions and dozens of “Top Pick” lists — have been driving for less than 24 months, and will be eligible to vote for the first time in their lives this November. They are three years away from being able to legally buy a beer, and they won’t be able to rent a car on their own until 2018.
Yet, for the next week or so, college football fans will treat their every utterance like decrees from Caesar.
It has always been this way. When Herschel Walker was going back and forth between Georgia and Southern Cal in the winter of 1980, newspaper, television and radio reporters camped out in the tiny town or Wrightsville, Ga., breathlessly awaiting an announcement as if it were white smoke from the Vatican chimney.
Now, the news travels through the blue ether of cyberspace at 4G speed. But the craziness hasn’t abated over the years. If anything, it’s gotten worse.
According to sources, California defensive end Arik Armstead is leaning toward Alabama over Notre Dame and Oregon. Really? This is a high school kid. Who are the sources? His mom? Some girl from chemistry class who thinks he’s soooo dreamy?
We’re not dealing with grown men making mature decisions. Tee Shepard, a four-star cornerback from Fresno, Calif., claimed that he was going to choose either USC or Notre Dame by drawing names from a hat — perhaps not the most thoughtful way to determine where you’ll spend the next four years of your life, especially when the decision is between South Central LA and South Bend, Ind.
Plus, for all this heady hoopla, a good percentage of the “Top Prospects” will struggle in their transition from high school to college, at least in their first year. Remember Jadeveon Clowney, the No. 1 recruit who signed with South Carolina? He had a pretty good year, finishing with 18 solo tackles and six quarterback sacks, but midway through the season Steve Spurrier said of his star freshman, “He’s going along okay. He’s learning, getting better. We’ll see how he does.”
Isaiah Crowell, the top running back prospect in the nation last year, was booed loudly and often in his freshman season at Georgia, a year that saw him suspended for violating team rules and earning the wrath of his coaches and teammates for his bad attitude and lack of work ethic.
Both Clowney and Crowell could do very well next season or the year after that. They were kids when they signed. Now, after a year of physical and emotional maturity, they are men and will be treated as such.
With football still at the forefront of fans’ minds (the Super Bowl hype is just getting started) and no college gridiron action until the spring, it’s easy to see why National Signing Day attracts so much interest and evokes so much passion.
But everyone would be well served to remember the ages of the people involved. Signing day is only slightly more important than a Little League draft. And the outcome is just as uncertain.
