Building the perfect beast

Todd Marinovich, 2015 style. Quite the read.

How to build a sports superstar in 2015: The engineering of 15-year-old Josh McKenzie

 

I'm still in the process of reading it, but just the beginning hit me. $15K a year, plus thousands more for those showcases. So let's say $25K a year.

If they do that from eighth grade to senior year, that's $125K. All, for a scholarship, which, depending on the school, may be only for one year. If it's up to four years, they may be paying all that, just to break even.

Oh, yeah, the NFL. The kid's already targeting it. Never mind that only 1-2 percent of college players make it to the league. The kid has a bigger chance of getting a career-ending injury.

Crissakes, let the kid be a kid.

 

The training methods are interesting and fine by me if the kid is also into it. But it's just absurd to have a kid that's already physically a man amongst boys and running roughshod over everyone in his class repeating 8th grade for purely athletic reasons. I think that's when somebody needs to step up to the dad and say "No!"

 

Has he eaten a Big Mac yet?

 

No pressure, kid.

 

Was hoping this was a thread to make fun of don henley

 

Agree targeting the NFL is a bit insane as a freshman in hs, but he also has excellent grades. His hs is at one of several private hs in North Jersey that kids attend with hopes of getting a scholarship, not just in football but several sports. It also is a very good school. Texans LB Brian Cushing went there and is a bit of a meathead, especially in some Hard Knocks episodes. But every year they send kids to Ivy League, Patriot League and other top schools, like Browns TE Jim Dray. MLB network's Mark DeRosa also went there and I have a good friend who played with and against him in baseball. IMHO it started to change when he was there, the early 90s. Before that most kids would have a relative or a friend or neighbor or a friend of a friend who went there. Now, all the top kids know all the top hs teams. The top private schools all play out of state games and go to 7 on 7s and camps in the summer and kids, like Josh McKenzie, attend hs that are 90+ minutes from their homes,

 

Funny coincidence. I was looking at the story again and a McDonald's ad popped up.

 

So now, after finally reading through it all, all I have to say is, WTF?

1.Between the family paying the $15K a year for trainers, plus the other thousands for the showcases, plus, as it turns out, possibly another $15K to attend Bergen Catholic without a scholarship, and they're looking at an assumed $35-$40K a year. And for what goal? A college scholarship, which may be worth that much anyways at a big-time school in order to get a minuscule shot at the NFL. Just have the kid go to a regular public school, train with the other kids, hang out with them and go on to D-III. He'll be happier and more well-rounded.

2. That championship tournament in Florida. Was I reading that correctly? The team played three games in five days? In football? Even Roger Goodell isn't that harsh.

3. The parent, school and fan reactions. Seriously people, it's a 14-year-old kid. Get a fucking life.

 

All he wants to do is dance?

 

Those jackets and acid washed jeans - Classic.