When I was 13, I had Pre-AP English, choir practice and blackheads. A scholarship offer to USC? Not so much.
That, however, is what David Sills V has been given. Sills, a quarterback from Delaware, has a six foot frame, solid mechanics and uncanny accuracy.
Go to YouTube and watch the video of this kid. Hitting his receivers on 20-yard deep passes. Escaping the pass rush of junior high defensive ends who run 6.5 seconds on the 40-yard dash. He's obviously a man among boys, and that's the problem.
First and foremost, who is this kid playing against? This isn't high school, where quarterbacks will occasionally still be facing top talent. In junior high, you have kids playing on the line just because of their heftiness. To prove this point, I would like you to look at my headshot. I played defensive line in junior high, and I never ran a 40-yard dash in under five … minutes.
Sure, he looks pretty solid now, but he also has the appearance of a child I could feed for just pennies a day. How much muscle will he even be able to add? Will his frame take hits at the high school level? There's going to be a target on this kid bigger than his actual torso, which isn't saying much since he's built like a Kenyan distance runner.
Also, isn't this one of the more depressing stories in college sports? I mean, I understand kids giving verbal commitments as juniors in high school. They're a year away from being an official commit and would like to have some stability in the longest year of their life. However, this kid is two years away from a learner's permit. He can't even take any possible girlfriends on a real date without Mama Sills driving the Love Bus to the Cinemark. But, of course, he should be able to decide what college he should go to. Obviously.
What about his personal coach, Steve Clarkson? Of course, he's just not his quarterback coach, he's a "Dream Maker." Really. That's the name of his YouTube account - QBDreamMaker. And he has bred some real legends, including Colt Brennan, Matt Leinart and J.P. Losman. I can absolutely see how future quarterbacking legends can see this guy as a "dream maker." Millions of dollars for mediocre play? Sign me up.
"He's already six feet as a 13-year old," Clarkson said about the Chosen One, "and he's breaking down NFL footage."
I'm pretty sure height as nothing to do with breaking down NFL coverage. I see what you're saying, Dream Maker, but at least coherently communicate your thoughts.
The most crooked member of this ridiculous story is none other than college football's version of John Calipari, USC Head Coach Lane Kiffin. I think Kiffin is a fine coach, of course, but his ethics are somewhere in between the Loch Ness Monster and Heidi Montag's music career- as it pertains to existing.
Somehow, between Dream Maker and Kiffin's soul-selling convention, the Sills were able to contact the coach, where it just so happened USC was the Chosen One's "dream school."
"Well, we're going out to California in a few weeks and we'll meet Lane then," Sills IV said.
Wait… they haven't even met yet? This kid has committed to the coaching equivalent of a used car salesman, at 13 years old, without even meeting him? Please excuse me while I throw up.
Of course, who are we to ruin this kid's dream? After all, if he were a prodigy in something else, we would be encouraging him, right Papa Sills?
"The way I look at it is if David was a phenomenal mathematician and I held him back, wouldn't that be wrong?" Sills IV reasons.
Yes, it would be wrong. But this is a completely different scenario. Mathematicians don't get laid out by the 6'3", 245-pound square root of negative one. Sills can't erase and restart the problem after tearing his rotator cuff.
Mr. Sills, this isn't a legitimate argument, this is you attempting to psychobabble and swing those of us with common sense into the pile of unreasonable people who like to kill dreams and cheer against kids.
This kid will no longer be known for his superior athletic talent, as he should. Instead, he will be known as the child who committed to USC at 13 years old. Sills V, instead of earning the reputation of a prodigy the old fashioned way - hard work or word of mouth - has been thrust into the limelight and labeled by parents, coaches, and Dream Makers who have more to gain at this time than he does.
"The rules are the rules and as long as you abide by the rules then you abide by the rules," Sills IV said.
Of course that's all that matters. Ethics must be shoved aside for only an interpretation of the rules. Now, please excuse me while I verbally commit my future son to Texas A&M. You know, because as long as I abide by the rules, I abide by the rules.
Kyle Cunningham is a junior sports management major.
