You Don't Have Sources

Dear Anonymous Internet Poster,

Recruiting is certainly a messy messy game of tag. The media coverage of recruiting is messier. Men and women whose full time job it is to watch, cover and make quick breaks on the decisions of a high school kid on what school they are to attend regularly fail at their jobs. Professionals, with years of talent and experience in the game of rumors are reluctant to cite anonymous sources in the recruiting game. Have you ever noticed how when a national writer or prominent well connected blogger cites a rumor they more often than not put a name to it? Ex. "I talked to player x’s coach and he tells me that player x has narrowed his list down to school y and z." Even with a legitimate source such as a player’s coach these writers are hesitant to post such information for the chances of it being incorrect. So if many professional writers barely have any citeable sources, you the message board junky have none.

I have done my best to try to follow the Gary Harris and Gunner Kiel recruitment banter recently and the thing that keeps popping up over and over is anonymous claiming to have a "reliable source" close to these individuals that know who is choosing where. Do you think if there were a reliable source out there with any knowledge on the situation that the professionals at least at the local level would have snatched it up and run with it by now? If there is a reliable source out there that says Gary Harris will be a Hoosier or Boiler or Spartan etc., then guys much more informed on the situation like Kyle Neddenriep would have reported it long ago. It is his job and he is very good at it.

So please relax on this "I have a source" BS. Because we know and you know that you are full of crap. You may know Gunner Kiel’s best friend and his best friend tells you that he is headed to Oklahoma. Well if that were true do you think it would remain a secret for long? Do you honestly think a 17 year old kid would keep it a secret from the world but tell you (anonymous poster)? It isn’t happening, especially when it would make a lot of money for someone to break that news first. If I were the one to break a Gunner Kiel commitment to Indiana do you know what that would do to this cite? I would pay pretty good money for reliable information that could make me the first to break it. It would provide me with the legitimacy that any wannabe sports writer craves.

Please quit claiming you have an anonymous source about some valuable piece of information. No one in their right mind believes you. If you can’t say who it is, then 99.999999999% of the time you are full of crap. You lose all credibility with any reasonable person that is reading your post. So in the end it is a detriment to your credibility (the little you have as an anonymous online message board poster) and wastes everyone else’s time. Please stop. You’re full of it.