Alex Collins has found out the price of playing college football when, at his letter of intent announcement, his mother refused to sign his National Letter of Intent to play at the University of Arkansas. His father has since signed his NLI and it is reported via sun-sentinel.com that his mother has hired a lawyer to explore the possibilities of preventing him from playing at Arkansas. ESPNU's all day recruiting special on February 6th found the story humorous and at one point had to restate the story was only alleged after laughing about it and making jokes for several minutes. The Collins situation highlights the large responsibility and decision that signing a letter of intent is for young athletes.
Other than Collins, three other South Florida athletes finalized their commitments on Signing Day:
- Adrian Baker, CB, Hollywood-Chaminade Madonna H.S. has committed to play at the University of Clemson
- Keith Bryant, DT, Delray Beach Atlantic has committed to play at Florida State University
- Jermaine Grace, OLB, Miramar H.S. has committed to play at the University of Miami
Collins picked Arkansas over Miami (FL), Florida State, Florida and Wisconsin but as per family members who have commented to the media, the family began having second thoughts and Collins' mother wanted him to stay closer to home. The Collins story shows one of the tenets of adulthood: when to stand firm with your own decision-making and the difference between surrendering to others' needs against taking them seriously into consideration.
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