Youth Combine

There have been a few stories recently about this new venture that specializes in ranking youth football players from around the country. It can be found here.

Last weekend, the organization hosted a combine in Lake Barrington to identify and rank (rank is right) the top youth football players in the country. These “elite” athletes ran the 40-yard dash and tested their vertical leaps.

Someone should examine these parents instead.

Aren’t sports at this age supposed to be fun? This is another example of overeager parents and opportunistic business persons inserting themselves into the equation.

But Rich McGuiness argued to the Daily Herald that something like this has been a long time coming. He used the example of tennis academies as a way to mitigate the debate and turn it toward his favor.

I argue he’s missing the point, but he doesn’t care. After all, he needs parents to continue writing him checks so their sons can attend his Football University.

The Latest
The Bears have spent months studying the draft. They’ll spend the next one plotting what could happen.
Woman is getting anxious about how often she has to host her husband’s hunting buddy and his wife, who don’t contribute at all to mealtimes.
He launched a campaign against a proposed neo-Nazis march at a time the suburb was home to many Holocaust survivors. His rabbi at Skokie Central Congregation urged Jews to ignore the Nazis. “I jumped up and said, ‘No, Rabbi. We will not stay home and close the windows.’ ”
That the Bears can just diesel their way in, Bronko Nagurski-style, and attempt to set a sweeping agenda for the future of one of the world’s most iconic water frontages is more than a bit troubling.