National Signing Day is Christmas for college football zealots

No, of course I don't mean a silly little thing like Super Bowl Sunday; I'm talking about today. Some sort of ... pagan lunar calendar ... officially decreed

Frank Deford | Feb 1, 2012

National Signing Day is Christmas for college football zealots /

No, of course I don't mean a silly little thing like Super Bowl Sunday; I'm talking about today. Some sort of ... pagan lunar calendar ... officially decreed the first Wednesday of the second month National Signing Day, when all over America high school seniors can officially plight their troth to a college football program.

Basketball has its national signing day in November, but for grown-up college football zealots especially in the South, today is National Regression Day. It's like going back to being a kid anticipating Christmas again -- who will Santa bring to my alma mater's team?

Of course, some of the top recruits, the so-called four-star and five-star prospects, have already announced where they will be matriculating. Several of them chose the Under Armour High School All-American Game of a few weeks ago to declare their roster of choice. That is an invitation game played between two sides known as -- let me say this slowly now: Team Blur and Team Highlight. The game is shown nationally on ESPN, so it's a top priority place to get good exposure for your declaration.

The highlight this year -- or maybe it was the blur -- was one player, ranked seventh best in all the land, who went on ESPN to announce that he was going to Alabama, while his mother sat next to him scowling, and later declared: "LSU Tigers, number one. Go, Tigers." Since verbal commitments don't count, maybe Mom will have swayed him from Tuscaloosa to Baton Rouge by the time he can sign that official letter of intent today. Either way, more face time.

The very best players will have massive television coverage when they sign -- and remember now, these are teenage kids. There is one popular psychological rendering that because LeBron James never had his own national signing day since he skipped college, he instead staged his own national signing day when he chose his next pro team to recreate the high school experience he never had. As we found out: when I was a child, I spake as a child, but ...

Guaranteed, as at the NFL and NBA drafts -- when the selected choices have baseball caps of their new teams plunked on their heads -- all the players who publicly announce their decisions today, will surely do so by putting on the cap of their new school. This, of course, also happens now when teams wins championships. Break out the baseball caps.

Putting on a baseball cap to make a statement has become such the fashion that I fully expect, on the night of this coming November 6th, either Barack Obama or the Republican candidate will greet victory, not with a speech, but simply by appearing in public and putting on a baseball cap that says "PRESIDENT."

Published Feb 1, 2012

FRANK DEFORD

Frank Deford is among the most versatile of American writers. His work has appeared in virtually every medium, including print, where he has written eloquently for Sports Illustrated since 1962. Deford is currently the magazine's Senior Contributing Writer and contributes a weekly column to SI.com. Deford can be heard as a commentator each week on Morning Edition. On television he is a regular correspondent on the HBO show Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. He is the author of 15 books, and his latest,The Enitled, a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball, was published in 2007 to exceptional reviews. He and Red Smith are the only writers with multiple features in The Best American Sports Writing of the Century. Editor David Halberstam selected Deford's 1981 Sports Illustrated profile on Bobby Knight (The Rabbit Hunter) and his 1985 SI profile of boxer Billy Conn (The Boxer and the Blonde) for that prestigious anthology. For Deford the comparison is meaningful. "Red Smith was the finest columnist, and I mean not just sports columnist," Deford told Powell's Books in 2007. "I've always said that Red is like Vermeer, with those tiny, priceless pieces. Five hundred words, perfectly chosen, crafted. Best literary columnist, in any newspaper, that I've ever seen." Deford was elected to the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. Six times at Sports Illustrated Deford was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of The Year. The American Journalism Review has likewise cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of The Year by the Washington Journalism Review. Deford has also been presented with the National Magazine Award for profiles; a Christopher Award; and journalism honor awards from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University; and he has received many honorary degrees. The Sporting News has described Deford as "the most influential sports voice among members of the print media," and the magazine GQ has called him, simply, "The world's greatest sportswriter." In broadcast, Deford has won a Cable Ace award, an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award for his television work. In 2005 ESPN presented a television biography of Deford's life and work, You Write Better Than You Play. Deford has spoken at well over a hundred colleges, as well as at forums, conventions and on cruise ships around the world. He served as the editor-in-chief of The National Sports Daily in its brief but celebrated existence. Deford also wrote Sports Illustrated's first Point After column, in 1986. Two of Deford's books, the novel, Everybody's All-American, and Alex: The Life Of A Child, his memoir about his daughter who died of cystic fibrosis, have been made into movies. Two of his original screenplays have also been filmed. For 16 years Deford served as national chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and he remains chairman emeritus. He resides in Westport, CT, with his wife, Carol. They have two grown children – a son, Christian, and a daughter, Scarlet. A native of Baltimore, Deford is a graduate of Princeton University, where he has taught American Studies.