Maybe it is just me, but I find the hand wringing and name calling that has gone on here--especially that involving Peyton Bowen's family--over the choice he made for where he wants to go to school to be a bit over the top. I wish people would step back from the ledge.
This morning I read an excellent post on the ND Nation Board from a guy that posts under the name Bruno95. (Disclaimer: I generally find the ND Nation message board to be a pretty depressing place, so I don't spend much time there, but I visited it to see what was being said about the Peyton Bowen situation.)
The post by Bruno95 was good enough that I thought I would quote him here in full. Here is the perspective he offered:
"I would not want my kids to handle themselves the way some recruits do. But those recruits aren’t my kids and they aren’t receiving my counsel.
Relating to their situations is difficult. No one outside of my family cared where I went to college, let alone actively and publicly inundated me with enticements. I applied to schools. They either accepted me or rejected me. Their word was final. Notre Dame didn’t later write to tell me they found someone smarter, so I should maybe visit Boston College. No one transferred in my junior year, pushing me out of my major.
Sports have gone mad. The pressure of competing for scholarships already drives “travel sports” environments to insanity. Now the crazy parents have personal paydays to motivate them. Enjoy that, parent of well-adjusted-yet-average 12U athlete.
Some of these recruits, maybe most of them, come from situations much different than our own. They can legally be paid money they need. They might not live in two-parent homes. In some cases, recruitment can become a new battleground between parents. Try adding that pressure to the existing pressure of the situation. Indecision and an unwillingness to disappoint can easily become default settings.
We all act differently under stress, and that’s with decades of experience. I wish I hadn’t posted a single thing about any recruit’s course of conduct. I don’t see what he’s going through. He’s a year older than my oldest kid, who can barely get himself to school on time in the morning.
Where a recruit one year older than him goes to school, or how he decides, should be of no moment to me. It’ll work out how it works out. No one cares what we think, and yet even without the pressure of scrutiny, we still regret or should regret how we acted yesterday.
But sweet Jesus, if you’re on Twitter and posting about one of these guys, arguing with other demented fans, and wishing ill on others based on any of this, you need a serious examination of your mental health."
Those are some astute observations, I think.
