Recruitnik Fans Go One Step Further Towards the Edge

If you are a regular reader of the Goergia Sports Blog, you might have noticed that I rarely cover recruiting here. My theory on that is that Scout.com, Rivals.com, DawgBone.net and the Georgia Grapevine do a great job in that area, and I've got zero interest in providing an overlapping/redundant service.

That doesn't mean that I don't follow it passionately. However, yesterday I saw something that made me pause and wonder if things hadn't spiraled way too far out of control in the recruitnik arena for even my tastes.

Yesterday, someone sent me a link that Bama fans have been using to track the recruiting in-home visits of Mike Shula. They are using Flight Aware to track the status of plane N1UA....aka "Bama One", aka the Crimson Tide Foundation's private plane. All of this is part of the completely overblown recruitment of Mr. Tim Tebow, the most super duper awesomest QB in the history of recruiting.

[Photo: The Tim Tebow. Photo from Scout.com]

I don't fault Bama fans....or Florida, LSU, Southern Cal, or Michigan fans for that matter. His stats and abilities look very impressive. But tracking your coach's flights to see when he's going to visit different kids. Isn't that a bit much?

I have this image of Steve McCroskey: standing in the tower at Tuscaloosa International Airport reminding everyone that he picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue while Shula tries to land the plane after the pilot gets sick from food poisoning.

When I heard about Arkansas the Batmobile stunt, that made sense to me. It was over the top and ridiculous, but it fit. This plane tracker thing just seems like stalking.

BTW -- Tebow will announce at 5:10 p.m. (EST) on ESPNews today (tuesday). Personally, I hope Bama gets him.

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