Under the Lights and Under Scrutiny: The Terrelle Pryor Saga

Indeed, how could he?  With four great schools offering him the chance of a lifetime and investing a year of effort convincing him to choose their outfit, it isn’t exactly easy for a kid three months shy of his high school diploma to tell all but one of them, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

Bu if Terrelle Pryor is having trouble making a decision, it seems there are millions of people who’d love to make it for him.  Peruse any internet message board and you’ll find posts by the hundred all about where he should go and why.  

Worse yet, these pale in comparison to the posts that argue where he shouldn’t go, or the posts accusing him of accepting gifts from someone’s program.  Already Michigan fans have accused Ohio State of paying for Pryor’s signature via local businessman Ted Sarniak.  

And even Pryor’s father has made no secret about where his loyalties lie; Craig Pryor wants his son to go to Penn State.

Suddenly, the ball seems not lie in the quarterback’s hands after all.  Pryor has admitted that he will be visiting Happy Valley mostly to appease his father.

While it’s Terrelle Pryor who’ll be stepping foot on a college campus next year, there is no shortage of expectations that will accompany him on the journey.
 
Want to know the truth?  In all likelihood, Terrelle doesn’t even know for sure where he’d like to sign, or when he’ll make the final decision.  But that hasn’t stopped a whole nation from guessing, from badgering, cajoling, conjecturing, from interfering in any number of ways.

Although Pryor’s decision to continue his recruitment is unusual, this story is not.  Every year college football fans spend an inordinate amount of time trying to persuade high school kids where they should spend the next four years of their lives, where they should get their educations, where they should call their homes.

The entire process is a monster of our own creation.

As USC mega-freshman Joe McKnight lamented while to trying to make his college choice, “These people have no right to tell me where to go.” 

But that hasn’t stopped them from trying.

So the next time you hear Terrelle Pryor’s name, try to refrain from judgment.  Let him take his time and let him make his own decision.  Most importantly, let him make the decision with his own interests at heart.

This won’t be the last kid to undergo the excruciating process of recruitment, but that doesn’t mean a nation of strangers should be allowed to influence the most important choice of his life. 

This is Terrelle Pryor’s story; let him write it.

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