Dorial Green-Beckham: Welcoming Billboard Too Much for Unproven HS Star

The people of Columbia, Mo. are not afraid to tell Dorial Green-Beckham that they are happy he is going to be a Missouri Tiger. That is fine, but only to a certain point. That point has been crossed. 

In Columbia, there is now a billboard congratulating Green-Beckham and the Tigers for his signing, which comes to us courtesy of Tom Fornelli of CBS Sports.  

If you want to know how athletes get the mindset that they're bigger and better than the team, this is a good start. In no way is this a shot at Green-Beckham. We will see what kind of attitude he has soon enough. No, the problem here rests with the people that give so much praise to an unproven player. 

How are the rest of the recruits supposed to feel? Forget about them, how are the current players on the team supposed to feel? This sign is basically telling all of those players that Green-Beckham is more important. 

That is not a standard you want to set for any player before he has played a single down in college. It may or may not be a long problem for Green-Beckham specifically, but the short-term problem is great no matter who the player is. 

You can't roll the red carpet out so freely for these kinds of players. The recruiting process already makes it impossible for them not to get big heads. Once they are actually landed, the schools need to do things to be sure that the athlete's heads are not too big. This does the exact opposite. 

It may not seem like a lot, but it really is. Now is the time for Green-Beckham and the Tigers to get to work on the field to find a way to compete in the SEC. 

If DGB has a good head on his shoulders and doesn't let this inflate his ego, then the next top recruit will. Things like this are just asking for a headcase. Seeing it, when athletes do become headcases, it's clear that the schools have nobody to blame but themselves. 

No matter how great the recruit is, he hasn't proven anything at the college level yet. They need to wait until Green-Beckham actually excels at Missouri to even think about giving him any special treatment.

Main picture courtesy of Kspr.com.

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