Should ESPN TV cover high school football games?

No

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by Timothy Williams

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The OJ Mayo controversy should be a great case study for why there should never be a nationally-televised high school sporting event. (At least, not in any team sport where professionals are paid millions of dollars.)

When ESPN and other cable sports networks began the occasional coverage of a high school basketball game, they did so to program around one player. LeBron James was on national cable telecasts several times during his high school career. Last year I recall seeing a game on a cable network that featured Michael Jordan's sons. National press coverage of high school basketball players is commonplace now, and it's slowly spilling over to football. Those who follow college football closely know the names of a few of the nation's best high school football players.

Basketball, of course, has different age requirements for going pro than football does. An American basketball player needs only be one year removed from high school to make the NBA today, and that rule has only existed for two seasons now. The NFL has a requirement of three years out of high school before a player is eligible. Of course, college football and basketball aren't exactly anonymous leagues either. Major national attention is paid to collegiate football.

Suppose high school football were televised. The best players in the country would become celebrities on a national scale. Suddenly, sports talk radio is littered with long discussions of where young Suchandsuch is going to end up. Kids across the country are buying jerseys of their favorite players. Wonder what the danger is in so much extra attention?

Scouts from professional and college teams already go to high school sporting events. Representatives of big time Division I colleges will show up from time to time on Friday night across America. But these are not the only people who are paid to see an athlete's potential, and many others who get paid for that are likely to try and persuade the athlete.

Already, if the allegations against Mayo have any truth to them, "runners" are paid by sports agents to recruit and secretly fund prospects with high potential so that once the kid turns pro, they will choose that runner's boss as their agent. This starts in high school now. This is especially true of basketball, where a high school senior is only some eighteen months away from becoming a star in the NBA. Since players in high school now have national name recognition (like OJ Mayo had in his high school days), agents get a good idea of just how marketable each one of them can be. When that spills over fully into football, look out.

On top of that there are boosters and extreme fans of some college teams that will offer the kid money from time to time. It's certainly happened before, and expect it to grow immensely if these rich fans can see their new pet project play on TV and see just how good he can be. Some people, as NCAA history repeatedly points out, will do just about anything to help their school win a title.

So what, you say. The kid's not braindead, he can make his own decisions! And besides, if millions of dollars are being spent on merchandising amateur athletes, shouldn't the people who do all the work get something? Fair enough, but remember where these kids are in life. I know when I was in high school I was certainly capable of making a decision that looks great in the short term and turns out really bad later on. I'm not sure I would have handled agents, boosters and national recognition very well. A lot of kids don't, after all.

They're still kids and they're still in high school. The last thing they need is more distractions and more opportunities to corrupt themselves. Remember the big man on campus at your high school? The quarterback, the star running back, the star basketball player? Ever think that being called a great athlete all the time went to their heads, and wondered if that was going to end up bad for them in the long run? That's because it usually does.

If you're an athlete in high school with major league dreams, you might want to click somewhere else right now. Because the truth makes that dream much more of a dream: there are many kids who were immensely talented at a sport that never made it to the big time. Same as music, acting, or anything else on display as entertainment and distraction. Only so many spots available in the majors.

A great pitcher who makes it to his senior year doesn't necessarily have to go to college-minor league baseball will take high school graduates if they're good enough-and everybody around him says he's going to be the next big thing. Fastball in the mid 90s, and a 12-to-6 curveball that could freeze All-Stars. So he lets his grades slip a little, and coasts a little, and decides not to apply to any colleges.

The day after graduation, right before the MLB draft, the pitcher snaps something in a workout for scouts, and his arm is done. The kid will never throw a curveball again without wincing in extreme pain. His pitching career never begins.

That's a cautionary tale that has been told many, many times. It's also true, and it's happened many, many times. Only a select few make it through that gauntlet and onto professional careers.

If high school football is televised, and the agents follow, football players will start succumbing to this tale more often. They will think they can coast by on mediocre grades because football scholarships are given to football players and not scholars. But football is a violent sport, and one bad hit can end a playing career at any time. Even before it starts.

My point is that high school athletes have a ton of distractions already. The absolute last thing they need is another opportunity to forget what's important.

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