Commentary: Recruiting shows its ugly side
The “soft verbal” is a creepy term in the creepy world of the college football recruiting process.
It adds to the sleazy nature of the beast that opens its voracious mouth every year on national feeding, er, signing day. It is part of the annual madness of greed and gluttony. It is a basic element in the unsavory buying and selling of hope and promise, however false.
A “soft verbal” refers to a high school player’s tenuous commitment – how’s that for oxymoronic? – to a school. Moreover, it assumes such a thing as a “solid verbal” exists, which is absurd. No verbal allegiance from a teenage kid to a college coach who is chasing him for a commitment is worth spit. It shouldn’t be viewed as meaningful when it’s probably nothing more than a recruit’s way of buying himself some time in a cutthroat business.
palmbeachpost.com
2/5/09
