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Kid duped by fake Tedford

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by MTM, Feb 5, 2008.

  1. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    Thanks for stopping by Scott
     
  2. Dedo

    Dedo Member

    Awesome.

    Turns out McNulty had not only claimed to be Tedford, but also tied a red ribbon around the poor kid's wrist.
     
  3. http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080205/SPORTS06/80205088/1003/NEWS01

    What's more probable? A vast conspiracy tricked this kid into thinking he'd been recruited by five schools or Hart made the whole thing up?

    I wonder if it started as a ruse to try and get other schools to look at him and just escalated from there ...
     
  4. funky_mountain

    funky_mountain Active Member

    looks like the kid and his parents were duped, along with the doofus coach:
    http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080206/PREPSPORTS/802060440

    from the story:
     
  5. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I don't think the newspaper did anything wrong. Cal isn't going to confirm anything, so they have to take the kid and/or his coach at their word.

    If they told him he was going to Cal, the paper wasn't wrong to write that the kid was giving a verbal committment to Cal, which technically, he did do...

    I'm just waiting for this kid to be ruled mentally ill and find out that he imagined the whole recruiting process. And even if he is the "top prospect in Northern Nevada" those players typically go to places like Weber State Nevada or UC Davis.
     
  6. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    The kid's high school coach should absolutely know how it works.
     
  7. baskethead

    baskethead Member

    He should, yeah, but it doesn't mean he does.
     
  8. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    Maybe, maybe not. Fernley doesn't exactly sound like a shiny 5A high school with artificial turf, luxury suites, million-dollar boosters and $100K coaches. Those coaches know the deal.
     
  9. MTM

    MTM Well-Known Member

    From AP:

    FERNLEY, Nev. (AP) -- A third party was allegedly involved in the recruiting gone bad of Fernley High School offensive lineman Kevin Hart, the Lyon County sheriff's office said.
    Hart, in a report taken Saturday by deputies, claims someone calling himself Kevin Riley represented himself as a recruiter -- a middle man to big-time college football programs -- and led the 6-foot-5, 290-pounder and his family to believe there were scholarship offers available when there were none.
    Deputy Dan Lynch said the report alleges a crime of obtaining money under false pretenses, though finding a suspect could be difficult.
    "It's an ongoing investigation but we have no suspect at this point and no info to identify a suspect," Lynch told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
    Lynch took statements from Hart and Fernley coach Mark Hodges at the school Saturday, a day after Hart verbally committed to California Berkeley during a school assembly that had Hart's father, Richard, holding back tears.
    Lynch declined to say how much money the Hart family paid Riley, or how the purported recruiter kept in contact with Hart and Hodges.
    Hart said at the announcement ceremony Friday that he talked many times with Cal head coach Jeff Tedford and that "personal experience" led to his decision to choose the Golden Bears over Oregon.
    But it appears he and his family may have been misled.
    Also Tuesday, the Lyon County School District said an internal investigation showed none of the universities once thought to have pursued Hart were involved.
    "Although only in a preliminary stage, the district's investigation to date has been unable to verify that Kevin Hart was ever offered an athletic scholarship or letter of intent to play football," district administrators said in a written statement.
    The district issued the statement the day before high school recruits around the country sign letters of intent, committing to college programs.
    "The district understands the importance of the National Letter of Intent signing date to these fine institutions and their football programs and issues this statement in order to clear up any concerns prospective recruits to those universities might have as a result of the events that have unfolded at Fernley High School since last Friday," the statement said.
     
  10. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    It's really sad... It's hard to believe that there are people out there who would do something like that... But in order to do it, there has to be someone out there stupid enough to fall for it...

    I can understand someone "wanting it to be true" so maybe they're not looking at the whole situation, but for this to happen, not only does the kid have to be dumb as a rock, so do his parents and his football coach...
     
  11. If this turns out to be true, I feel really, REALLY bad for the kid and his parents.
    However, what about the "official visit" the kid said he took to Oklahoma State last week, that never happended? Was that set up by his "agent" (my word) or did the kid just make it up?
    Even if the coach is a backwater coach, he never dealt with a small D-I or D-II coach? The recruiting rules are the same. 99.5 percent of any signing I have dealt with, the prep coach knew what was going on and knew it was on the level.
    Something still ain't right.
     
  12. Piotr Rasputin

    Piotr Rasputin New Member

    (How the heck did I miss this thread?)

    I know this Kevin Riley development may contradict my thoughts . . . but my first reaction to this story was "This kid created this hoax so he could get his name out there, get people talking about him and asking about him."

    Because the alternative is that he and his family (and coach) are incredibly guileless in the ways of the world. This isn't 1990; the means for them to educate themselves about this process are easily available.
     
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