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2/11/08 By now you’ve heard the story of Kevin Hart, a 6’5” 290lb lineman for Fernley High School near Reno, Nevada. In one of the most bizarre accounts I’ve ever seen, this young man held court at a high school assembly recently to announce he would be attending Cal on a full football scholarship. Unfortunately, the entire ordeal was a hoax. “I wanted to play Division I football more than anything,” Hart said, and when I realized it wasn’t going to happen, I made up what I wanted to be, embarrassing my family and coaches.” When I first got wind of this story last week from a buddy of mine at Fox Sports, I told him I knew something was wrong because he had never met Cal Head Coach Jeff Tedford in person. Simply put, there is no way he could get an offer without first meeting the Coach face-to-face. At some point that would’ve had to happen. But there is something even more wrong with this whole fairy tale. Somewhere along the line this young man believed he had to be perceived as a top-flight D1 athlete and member of the California Bears to be a valued, validated member of the human race. And, that is learned behavior. How did this happen? As a player, Hart was ranked on Rivals.com and by most accounts a legitimate prospect. So if his only goal was to play D1 football, there are over 118 other colleges to choose from. Wouldn’t playing for a lesser D1 school without the same visibility still have been OK? Now, they might not have had the status of Cal, but then that would mean he has a different agenda all together. Therein lies the larger issue. His goal was to achieve status, albeit in a fraudulent matter. And in his desperation to impress other people and foster the image he wanted, he cost himself dearly. Ultimately, his goal was not to simply strap it on and compete, his goal was to make himself look and feel important. Wrong motive… In a perfect world, people would participate in sports because they truly loved them, not simply because they needed to live up to someone else’s, or society’s expectations. I feel sorry for Kevin Hart. He probably was good enough to play D1 football, just not good enough to play at Cal. But, unfortunately it mad him feel unworthy enough to engage in a ridiculous stunt that may even have legal consequences. At the end of the day, I have no idea if he’s a bad person. But he certainly looks like a victim. (c) 2007 Novi
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