D'OH!!!

Via Deadspin are these articles about a high school kid who got scammed into committing to a school to play football that never recruited him. Sad, but also kind of hilarious:

It was quite a scene in the Fernley (Nev.) High gym on Friday. A 6-foot-5, 290-pound football player, seated at a table with his coach beside him, was making his college selection before a cheering crowd. On the table before him were a pair of baseball caps -- one from the University of California and one from the University of Oregon.

The player reached for the blue Cal hat, bent the visor, and placed it on his head, signifying that he was accepting a scholarship to play at the school and would officially sign his letter-of-intent today, the first day senior high school football players can do so. Television crews and a newspaper reporter were present for what was believed to be the first Division I college athlete from the town of Fernley (pop. 19,700).

Hours later, the feel-good story began to fall apart.

Neither California, Oregon -- nor any of the handful of other college football programs mentioned by Kevin Hart -- had offered him a scholarship. In fact, some of the schools he mentioned had never put his name into their databases to send players recruiting literature.

And:

Hart said he had attended a football camp where a person claiming to be a recruiter had loaned Hart money. Hart said he paid the man back between $500 to $700 more than the initial loan but did not find out the man was not affiliated with any schools until after committing to California, Lange said.

This is the curious part. Usually the recruiter bribes the player, and I'm guessing the player never really repays the guy, right?

Or is there an underworld of 3rd party guys who take money from borderline players and try to get them into major colleges? Seems hard to do, and when you have not just coaches, but the whole sports training industry designed to take money from marginal players while marginally improving their athleticism, it seems odd that you would just have an unaffiliated guy serve as a broker and then trusting him so completely you never visit the college or a coach (whose pictures you can find on the web) in person. Maybe Kevin Hart is just really dumb.

Even weirder, as scams go, it seems like alot of effort to get $700 bucks. Unless Hart is lying about the amounts.