As you no doubt have heard by now, 13-year-old quarterback prodigy David Sills gave a “verbal commitment” to Southern Cal just a couple of days ago.
The backlash stemming from the situation was immediate and, in some cases, quite vicious. Most of the venom was directed at USC carnival barker head coach Lane Kiffin, but some was saved for the father of the teenager.
Speaking to ESPN Los Angeles.com, David Sills IV admitted that the commitment was “weird” and “bizarre”, but defended the decision to allow his son to commit at such an early age as simply playing by the rules as they are currently constituted.
“Even when I sit back and reflect on it, it’s shocking, weird, bizarre, you name it,” the elder Sills said. “Quite frankly I think everyone is entitled to their own opinion. The rules are the rules and as long as you abide by the rules then you abide by the rules. If people don’t like this they don’t need to get mad about it and bash the dad and bash the coach and bash the kid, they should call up the NCAA and tell them that they don’t like the rules.
“I’m a guy that follows the rules. Whatever the rules are, let’s play by the rules. It’s very difficult as a father to say my son shouldn’t be getting recruited at 13 so I’m not going to let him have this opportunity. ...
“For the people that don’t like kids getting recruited early, if it was their kid, what would they do? Would they hold them back? I understand people’s opinions and I respect that everybody is allowed to have an opinion but I don’t really have a problem with people young, old or in between getting recruited. I don’t think it’s a big deal. People talk about pressure and expectations but that’s not who David is. He doesn’t feel a lot of pressure. He loves football and he likes to have fun. I told him if it ever gets to a point where he’s not having fun to stop and we’ll play golf.”
That’s all well and good, and the father makes some excellent points -- “The way I look at it is if David was a phenomenal mathematician and I held him back, wouldn’t that be wrong? If he was a great piano player or a gifted child actor and I held him back, wouldn’t that be wrong?” -- but that still doesn’t change the fact that the whole situation is downright creepy.
Perhaps, though, that creep factor is directly related to the head coach involved in this head-scratching affair.