Is the University of Nevada gambling, offering 9-year old Havon Finney Jr., a football scholarship? Isn’t that institution of higher learning worried the kid is past his prime? Seriously, what the heck is going on here?
Perhaps the Nevada Wolf Pack has been blown away by the kid’s highlight reel. He’s amazingly coordinated and has great catching skills. He wears receiver gloves and sports some mighty fine ripped abs. He’s fast – he’s still in the skinny-as-a-toothpick stage, and has a cool haircut with a Mohawk tuft running front to back. Who wouldn’t want to sign the kid up? He’s just finished grade 4. For sure he’s got other-worldly talents and he has the good graces to be grateful. Havon, AKA HollywoodHav, has told his 19.8k Instagram followers: “...I love God.”
Before you wonder of the legalities, if kids, blessed or otherwise, can sign contracts, knowing there are laws stipulating a minimum age for this sort of thing, rest assured these scholarships are non-binding until the recipient signs something called a letter of intent – and for that they’ve got to be a senior in high school. But give the kid some immediate feedback. Make the offering of a scholarship like it is for the Doodle4Google artwork contest, where youngsters from elementary to high schools, if their wares are good enough, can get a $5,000 scholarship. Don’t need lawyers, parents, guardians, or God-parents for that...
Let’s leave the frightful legal mumbo-jumbo aside. Let’s turn to more horrifying facets. Even though many kids skateboard without padding, it seems scarier having little ones so young playing full-gear tackle football. Their bones are still forming...And what of the risk of concussions? Their brains are still forming...And even if Havon and his buddies are fortunate enough to avoid being concussed, if Chief of neuroradiology at Wake Forest School of Medicine, Christopher Whitlow and his team are correct, brain imaging they’ve conducted throughout a football season shows kids brains have been detrimentally altered in the playing. An estimated 3.5 million boys are playing football in America. How many might suffer traumatic brain injury?
But in the here and now, when all is peaches and cream with stardom and an injury-free career in front of him, it is clear the little guy can catch long bombs like nobody’s business. He’s got the football sense and savvy to come back to the ball, come back to the quarterback, break his pattern, when the QB is scrambling. He can catch over his shoulder and snare a pass in, one-handed. (But what is just as jaw-dropping is watching the kid quarterback(s) tossing those long bombs while sprinting out of the pocket...)
If he signs the scholarship, or someone old enough for him does (do kids know how to write their names at 9, or do they still print them?) he could save a bundle on Out-of-State tuition fees. This year they are at $21,775. Lord knows what they’ll be in about 8 years when the gaffer finished high school.
And this finishing high school thing is a small part of why this trend to offering near-babies scholarships is becoming the way of things. They want the recipient to fly right, work hard and study both on and off the field. The rest of the reasons are, not surprisingly, not so altruistic; if a kid is a phenom who looks like he might have staying power, why not get him signed on the dotted line? But (and we’re assuming, just this last once, these scholarship offers do have some serious legal bite) do these scholarship offers have an escape clause which doesn’t involve a buy out? What if Havon decides he wants to be a racing car mechanic, or driver, and thus decides university is not the best way to reach his dreams?
Or say Havon survives football through high school unscathed. He goes to the University of Nevada and blows out a knee in his first game. And doctors can’t put Humpty Dumpty together again to meet football’s exacting standards. What happens to the scholarship then? Does it go the way of the Dodo bird? Or what if Havon goes a bit Aaron Hernandez at the school and gets busted and convicted? Bye-bye scholarship. Even if he stays within society’s legal lines - what if his GPA stinks, doesn’t meet a prescribed minimum? See you, scholarship...
Suppose Head Coach, Jay Norvell, and his 21 assistant coaches (for sure a scholarship should be given to each footballer that makes the team - who can remember all the coaches’ names - and Havon should personally thank the 1 assistant that saw a few of his highlight tapes and recommended a scholarship be offered) remain there until Havon comes to the rescue. But before Havon’s second season is to start the University fires Norvell et al. The new football boss has different philosophies and cuts Havon. Say sayonara scholarship...
But for now Havon’s saying all the right things and is dutifully training his keester off, exampled by his trainer, Mike Evans, having him pushing a huge tire that’s gotta outweigh Havon by 5 times. And Mr. Evans seems to be a foreseer. He describes Havon and another kid: “Genetically they have the size of pro athletes.”
And major-league university and NFL football dreams are formed from such pint-sized kids...
Perhaps the Nevada Wolf Pack has been blown away by the kid’s highlight reel. He’s amazingly coordinated and has great catching skills. He wears receiver gloves and sports some mighty fine ripped abs. He’s fast – he’s still in the skinny-as-a-toothpick stage, and has a cool haircut with a Mohawk tuft running front to back. Who wouldn’t want to sign the kid up? He’s just finished grade 4. For sure he’s got other-worldly talents and he has the good graces to be grateful. Havon, AKA HollywoodHav, has told his 19.8k Instagram followers: “...I love God.”
Before you wonder of the legalities, if kids, blessed or otherwise, can sign contracts, knowing there are laws stipulating a minimum age for this sort of thing, rest assured these scholarships are non-binding until the recipient signs something called a letter of intent – and for that they’ve got to be a senior in high school. But give the kid some immediate feedback. Make the offering of a scholarship like it is for the Doodle4Google artwork contest, where youngsters from elementary to high schools, if their wares are good enough, can get a $5,000 scholarship. Don’t need lawyers, parents, guardians, or God-parents for that...
Let’s leave the frightful legal mumbo-jumbo aside. Let’s turn to more horrifying facets. Even though many kids skateboard without padding, it seems scarier having little ones so young playing full-gear tackle football. Their bones are still forming...And what of the risk of concussions? Their brains are still forming...And even if Havon and his buddies are fortunate enough to avoid being concussed, if Chief of neuroradiology at Wake Forest School of Medicine, Christopher Whitlow and his team are correct, brain imaging they’ve conducted throughout a football season shows kids brains have been detrimentally altered in the playing. An estimated 3.5 million boys are playing football in America. How many might suffer traumatic brain injury?
But in the here and now, when all is peaches and cream with stardom and an injury-free career in front of him, it is clear the little guy can catch long bombs like nobody’s business. He’s got the football sense and savvy to come back to the ball, come back to the quarterback, break his pattern, when the QB is scrambling. He can catch over his shoulder and snare a pass in, one-handed. (But what is just as jaw-dropping is watching the kid quarterback(s) tossing those long bombs while sprinting out of the pocket...)
If he signs the scholarship, or someone old enough for him does (do kids know how to write their names at 9, or do they still print them?) he could save a bundle on Out-of-State tuition fees. This year they are at $21,775. Lord knows what they’ll be in about 8 years when the gaffer finished high school.
And this finishing high school thing is a small part of why this trend to offering near-babies scholarships is becoming the way of things. They want the recipient to fly right, work hard and study both on and off the field. The rest of the reasons are, not surprisingly, not so altruistic; if a kid is a phenom who looks like he might have staying power, why not get him signed on the dotted line? But (and we’re assuming, just this last once, these scholarship offers do have some serious legal bite) do these scholarship offers have an escape clause which doesn’t involve a buy out? What if Havon decides he wants to be a racing car mechanic, or driver, and thus decides university is not the best way to reach his dreams?
Or say Havon survives football through high school unscathed. He goes to the University of Nevada and blows out a knee in his first game. And doctors can’t put Humpty Dumpty together again to meet football’s exacting standards. What happens to the scholarship then? Does it go the way of the Dodo bird? Or what if Havon goes a bit Aaron Hernandez at the school and gets busted and convicted? Bye-bye scholarship. Even if he stays within society’s legal lines - what if his GPA stinks, doesn’t meet a prescribed minimum? See you, scholarship...
Suppose Head Coach, Jay Norvell, and his 21 assistant coaches (for sure a scholarship should be given to each footballer that makes the team - who can remember all the coaches’ names - and Havon should personally thank the 1 assistant that saw a few of his highlight tapes and recommended a scholarship be offered) remain there until Havon comes to the rescue. But before Havon’s second season is to start the University fires Norvell et al. The new football boss has different philosophies and cuts Havon. Say sayonara scholarship...
But for now Havon’s saying all the right things and is dutifully training his keester off, exampled by his trainer, Mike Evans, having him pushing a huge tire that’s gotta outweigh Havon by 5 times. And Mr. Evans seems to be a foreseer. He describes Havon and another kid: “Genetically they have the size of pro athletes.”
And major-league university and NFL football dreams are formed from such pint-sized kids...