Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Why Does a Kid Lie About College Recruitment

I saw some ESPN footage today from a story about a high school football player who lied to his family, coaches, and community about getting recruited to play D I football--to the point where the school had an assembly for him to announce his college pick. He had fabricated the whole story because he wanted it so bad, didn't want to disappoint anyone (himself probably at the top of the list), and once he had started the lie, it escalated wildly before he could think of a way to stop it.

This is a sad commentary. It's not so much that sports plays such a dominant and important role in our culture. I get that. There's great value for both the participants and the spectators. It's that nothing was acceptable to him accept a major D I roster spot. No one from his community had ever played D I football and he had to have the bragging rights. And it basically shamed him and derailed his life.

His high school coach left his job over it, the kid ended up in therapy, and the community was pretty shocked by the whole thing. How can this happen?

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