It takes a doctor to state the obvious, doesn't it? In the case of recruiting coverage, a psychologist states that all this recruiting coverage just might affect new recruits in a negative way: (HT: Tomahawk Nation).
The blowout coverage should come with a warning, printed in plain language on the sides of computer and television screens: Recruiting might have a negative impact on young people. Dr. Eric Goldstein, a sports psychologist in South Miami, sees it nearly every day.
According to Goldstein and other psychologists, the massive amount of attention being dumped upon the heads of 17- and 18-year-old football players is not necessarily good for their mental health. The potentially harmful side effects include an inflated ego, a false sense of self, entitlement issues, identity foreclosure and a general detachment from reality.
If you'd like an example of where this kind of stuff leads, you need look no further than Jason Peter's book, Hero of the Underground.
In it, Peter talks about how he was put on a pedestal because he of his football playing ability. He emphasized that further during an interview I did with him regarding his book:You start there, then you get to Nebraska, sign, and become a household name. There’s no where else on earth where people love their program like here. You become a starter, then a three-year starter, a captain, and all you hear is how great you are, that you’re the best. I don’t care if you have a good head on your shoulders, you start to think that this is the way people should be treating you all the time.
In the NFL, you’re still on a pedestal, people tell you you’re right when you’re wrong, so it carries over. You think this is how life is supposed to be. You’re supposed to be told how great you are all the time. When the day came when I couldn’t play football anymore, my life just went down the toilet. I thought I’d play forever and then everything was over.
I'm not trying to say that all the recruiting coverage leads someone down the same path as Jason Peter, not even close. His book does stand as a message to these guys that they'd better have something else going on besides football, however, otherwise the "life down a toilet" phrase might apply.
We haven't done much recruiting coverage here, but I think I'll try to change that this week. I'm not 100% sure what form it will take yet, but we'll have something going on with regards to signing day, and try to get a little bit more going early in the week.
We've (all of us, the country, the citizens of earth) have built the world we live in.