Logan Tuley Tillman Exposes The Ugliness Of Recruiting

The story of Logan Tuley Tillman is a tough one to read. First the facts. Tillman is an OT that has been offered a scholarship by 20 different schools, two of which were UofM and Ohio State. He chose Michigan. He believes in the rivalry and he can't wait to play the Buckeyes on the field. The story should have ended there, but now we live in a world where everyone is on Twitter and Facebook. Tilley decided to kick it up a notch by burning his OSU recruitment letter and putting that image up on Twitter. Now Tillman and his mother are getting death threats.

There is much to hate about this story. I am upset at the following people in ascending order:

Tillman: You gotta give the kid a break because he is a high schooler. I will reserve the majority of my bile for the people surrounding him, but he should have a more humility. He did it to get attention. If he would have just burned the stupid letter in front of his friends and hangers-on he probably would have gotten the laugh that it deserved. Maybe in a couple of years you get interviewed by Erin Andrews and then you can tell the story. But to actually photograph it is asking for trouble that you don't need. Not as much as he got, but he has not totally blameless.

The fans that actually follow recruiting: This has gotten completely out of hand. I am creeped out by people who follow the lives and decisions of high school kids. Why are you following children on Twitter? You really think their thoughts and ideas are going to be interesting? Do you really need to be fully steeped in the wisdom of someone who hasn't graduated high school yet? We all thought that LeBron was unforgivable for his "decision". He was rightly excoriated for orchestrating an hour long love fest where he basked in the attention of the country. Well, now high school kids are doing the same thing.

You do know that many recruits don't work out right? Understand that your little stalker programs only lead to a library of disinformation. Kids get growth spurts; have differing levels of commitment and girlfriends. The recruiting game is an inexact science at best and few 5 star recruits live up to their promise, at any level. Why lecherous fans can't just avert their gaze until after athletes are past voting age is beyond me.

The people around Tillman: His parents should have shut down the Twitter account. People need to keep him humble. The kid is acting like a superstar before he has even put on shoulder pads, and that never happens without enabling. Dozens of stories are written all over the country about how adults get in trouble for popping off at the mouth about any topic on Twitter. The limelight and attention is going to be far too tempting to resist for these kids. If your son or daughter is starting to get this kind of attention, you must pull the plug.

The OSU fans that sent death threats to a child: You are the worst kind of trash that has ever lived on this planet. You do not deserve to suck oxygen out of the collective atmosphere that the rest of us have to live in. How can anyone be so base as to threaten the life of a high school kid because he didn't want to play at your school? Have you completely lost your mind? Oh wait, yes you have. Don't you understand that the best villains to play against in sports are the ones that spurned you from the beginning? The rivalry is so hot partially because the two schools draw from the same pool. There are other factors of course, but recruiting has always been part of it.

If you send a teenager death threats, and his mother death threats, because he picked a different college to go to, you abscond your ability to call yourself a human being. You should know that you are a pile of ignominious refuse, which only should be communicated with by rendering ridicule and reprehension. There is no lower form of life than you, and you should seek the help you need before your choices and psychology render you unfit participate in society in general.