A hulking high school senior, clad in a shirt and tie and a fresh ridge of sweat shining upon his forehead, wearily picks up the pen and signs his own signature upon a dotted line. To some, this signature is a contract, an obligation, to an institution’s football program; a pledge of utter allegiance. Next comes the hat, which is fleetingly cast upon the signee’s head, like a marker that indicates commitment to the logo embroidered upon its brow. In front of the glow of the cameras, the cheering fans, the family, and the viewers at home (some crushed, some ecstatic at the choice of the talented player), a star signs away his services to a top-flight football program.

As National Signing Day vastly approaches, big time college football coaches are racing against the hands of the clock, trying to secure a signature from some of America’s elite prep football talent. This hastily-conceived signature is enough to captivate a fan base or arouse a football program, while having the potential to cripple the ones that have been spurned. True colors and allegiances will come out on February 1^st, 2012, when the stakes will be high as young men across the country celebrate their shining futures. While this day of jubilation is meant to commend the great talent passing on to the next level of football, to others it is a day of realization, that they will not make it, and that they have no papers to sign, no pep rally honoring their future, and no big time college football to be played. The oft-overlooked perspective of National Signing Day is a dim one, and many high school football players will experience this bitter sensation come February 1^st.

That was the reality of Kevin Hart, a class of 2008 graduate of Fernley High School about 400 miles outside of Las Vegas. Hart’s reality was that he was a middle-tier football player from a small Nevada town, blessed with ideal size and heart but not the academic prestige nor athleticism to play at a top-tier Pacific-10 conference school. Kevin defied reality by devising a complex lie, requiring both fortitude and a depressing self-realization. Kevin quickly became the crown jewel of Fernley High, fooling his coaches and friends with lies that he was being courted by the football programs at the University of Nevada, University of Oregon, and University of California-Berkeley. Kevin’s fabrication and deception from those that loved him culminated in his announcement in front of a packed gymnasium full of beaming Fernley faithful that he would play football under Jeff Tedford at Cal. Hundreds gathered in the gymnasium bought in to Kevin’s tragic lie, roaring his name and praising his prospectus as a future Cal Golden Bear offensive lineman. The local media inflated him with questions of the process, of the joy in being a Division I football player a top West Coast institution.

Kevin’s ludicrous charade eventually came to an end when the University of California called Fernley head football coach Mark Hodges, telling him there had been a mistake and they had never laid eyes on Kevin. Kevin’s lies display a bleak aspect of National Signing Day, one that puts the event in to perspective. Most high school athletes will feel empathy for Kevin’s story, as most student athletes do not make it to the next level. The end of the road is certainly of relativity to National Signing Day, as was the case with Kevin Hart, who now finds redemption playing football at Feather River College in Quincy, California.

Fortunately, for a select group of high school football players, their careers will continue down a starlit avenue. National Signing Day will see stud defensive end Mario Edwards of Denton, Texas sign a letter of intent to Florida State, elusive Aledo, Texas running back Johnathan Gray sign on to play for the Texas Longhorns, and future NFL standout Dorial Green-Beckham decide between the Arkansas Razorbacks, Missouri Tigers, and Oklahoma Sooners. For these standouts, the show will go on long past National Signing Day, an event that should be celebrated as well as put in to perspective.

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