National Signing Day - What Are They Signing Up FOR??

Signing Day is Here

    Wednesday is the big day, right?  The day dreams are realized for high school football players around the country.  The day that caps off a year .. or two ... or more... of recruting to play in front of jam-packed stadiums and national television audiences.
     The biggest schools get the biggest prizes - that's how it always is.  But is it a prize to be a college football player?  I'm beginning to wonder.  And I could watch college football day and night.
      By now, America's sports fans are well-aware of the 13 Iowa Hawkeye football players admitted to a local hospital after multiple days of extreme workouts.   The athletes suffered from rhabdomyolysis, a muscle injury disorder that has an adverse effect on the kidneys. 

Iowa Hawkeye News Conference January 26, 2011

     While not tragic - each of the players has now been released from the hospital - the eye-popping incident hit social media, sent player's parents into shock, and football coaches and administrators into full-blown crisis management.
      Bottom line, when a man in a white lab coat is seen at a University athletic news conference, there is a problem.  A big problem.
      John Stokes, a nephrologist and Iowa professor who wasn't directly involved with the treatement of the athletes, said the condition is fairly common among fotball players and is not typically life-threatening.  I ask - it isn't?
  
      In a terrific column in the Orlando Sentinel this week, Mike Bianchi opened readers eyes by writing the following....

"Question for lunatic football coaches: Is it really necessary to work players so hard that they are peeing brown in the hospital?"  "Three days from now is National Signing DAy for high school football players.  Here's hoping they all get into the college of their choice.  Here's hoping even more the all get out alive."  


       Harsh words but much needed after the last decade or so has left us with funerals at far too many schools after athletes passed away far before they could ever mature as men.  And who's job is it to turn them into men?  And to what degree does a coach need to go to help them get there?
       Kirk Ferentz was on the road recruiting more athletes to his program.  By no means is he alone.. but he is singled out in this latest incident. Parents of the hospitalized players called him out for not coming back to campus with a sense of urgency.


College Sports Scrutinized

        In looking at the big picture, by no means is Iowa alone in all of this.  Far from it.  So let's make that clear.  But you can bet, his program will be covered much differently for some time.  Media and social media have taken things to a whole new level in Iowa City.  And I say, good.  Good for all of college football.  And other college sports at various schools from coast to coast as well.
       Would we really see this at the NFL level?  I doubt it.  Players Union's wouldn't allow for it.  Highly paid athletes wouldn't stand for it.
       And hopefully, non-paid college athletes won't have to stand for it any longer.  Sometimes - sadly - the only way for change is something so bad and so noticeable that everybody's put under the microscope.  Coaches held responsible, a winning-at-all costs mentality pushed aside because of a fear for something far worse than 13 kids just being hospitalized.
        Tomorrow, as the stars of the future put their names on the dotted line... let's hope they know what they're signing up for.  Because now.... unfortunately....we all do.
        As always... thanks for reading and I welcome your comments.