WHERE DO WE DRAW THE LINE?

What should 12 and 13-year-old kids be doing on a typical afternoon? Riding bikes in the summer, snowboarding in the winter. Perhaps reading a book and chatting it up with friends. Sadly, for some tweens and teens they are being exploited by the media and college coaches. Its nothing new to the world of sports but its still a puzzling one all the same.

This week, 13-year-old David Sills of Bear, Delaware verbally committed to USC and their ever enigmatic head coach Lane Kiffin.

Is it too early to tell if a kid is going to be the next Matt Leinart or Matt Barkley? according to personal quarterback coach Steve Clarkson, who by the way discovered Leinart and Barkley, not so in the case of Sills who he believes is going to be the next big star when he is officially eligible to sign his letter of intent...in 2015.

Sills' father David senior, is adamant that if we were in his shoes we would do the same.

Quoting from ESPN, Sills Senior says, "The way I look at it is if David was a phenomenal mathematician and I held him back, wouldn't that be wrong? If he was a great piano player or a gifted child actor and I held him back, wouldn't that be wrong?" Sills' father asked. "There are a lot of things that people don't put a negative stigmatism to because they're considered prodigies and all I'm doing is saying David has been recognized as a decent athlete and I'm allowing him to fulfill whatever opportunities that he can. It's as simple as that. There's no pressure, there's gentle encouragement. He's the one that always says dad let's go to the gym and let's throw. It's what he enjoys doing. If he ever got to a point where he doesn't love what he does I told him to stop."

I think there is a difference between solving algorithms as a math prodigy and getting your mind and your body beaten down daily in the hopes that you may be the next great Leinart. And five years from now, will Clarkson's prophecy hold true? He's banking on it with an all out media blitz that includes possible appearances on Oprah and Ellen.

So what do you think? Too much too soon or not enough face time on ESPN? I'm on my way to drop my 7th grader to play a game of pick-up basketball. Maybe Tom Izzo will be there.