5-Star OT Damian Prince Says He's Received Death Threats

Damian Prince, a 5-star offensive tackle in the class of 2014, is a big guy at 6'6" and 300 pounds, but that doesn't make him immune to death threats.

As is too often the case in recruiting, Prince revealed that he has received death threats, according to a feature by Brandon Parker of the Washington Post. Prince discussed a particularly chilling story involving fans who got his number and called him on FaceTime, per Parker:

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They were like "If you don’t come to our school, we’ll kill you and your family" and "we know where you live." Somehow they got my number and FaceTimed me, flashing guns and saying stuff. But they didn’t block their number or anything, so they weren’t too smart.

Obviously, it can get very, very, very crazy. It bothered me at first, but I just brushed it off and once I kept declining the number, it just faded away. You just have to keep your circle small and prioritize, but I’m not going to lie; it’s hard sometimes.

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First of all, what kind of person flashes guns—FaceTime or not—at a high school kid? The fact that it has to do with something as arbitrary and ultimately unimportant as football and recruiting makes this story even more sickening.

For as big as Prince is, this is still a kid we're talking about. Even if he was a grown man, nobody deserves to have to deal with that kind of ignorance and stupidity over anything. 

This is one of the downsides of the growing popularity of both recruiting and social media. On one hand, the combination allows real college football fans to interact with the future stars of the sport. It also gives them access to valuable information and insight at a moment's notice.

On the other, it gives deranged, mentally unstable and childish "adults" the same availability to recruits and their families.

As unfortunate as it is, it's oftentimes the lunatics and fringe fanatics that end up crossing the line and giving college football recruiting fans a bad name. This is one of those cases.

Chances are this will be a crazy story that Prince can talk about at the end of a long career and nothing else. The fact that it even happened is truly despicable, though.

Prince is the nation's No. 2 offensive tackle, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Maryland, Ohio State, Rutgers, South Carolina, Tennessee and Vanderbilt are his top 10 schools, according to Parker's report.

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