Brey Cook, LeBron James and the silly season

Last night, Brey Cook, a highly-touted offensive lineman from Springdale, announced his decision to play football for Arkansas beginning in the fall of 2011. Well, kind of. He issued an oral commitment which is completely non-binding. He could change his mind between now and Signing Day in February. He could change his mind a dozen times and orally commit to every Division I school in America.

Yet at least two of the three NWA TV stations decided to carry this momentous occasion live during the 6 p.m. news. But not during sports. Instead, during the first segment known as the "A block" among TV types. The TV producers didn't have the stones to tell a high schooler "No, if you want to do this live our sports segment starts at 6:20. We can do it then."

As I've said before, oral commitments are like engagements, Signing Day is the wedding ceremony. Sure, you might have an engagement party, but the wedding is usually a much more lavish affair. Yes, you get your engagement announcement in the paper, but I don't remember the last time the DG devoted an entire page to a society engagement the way they do society weddings.

I'm beginning to think the wedding analogy is fitting in another way. These high-school athletes are turning into Bridezillas. In fact, as long as they're turning this announcements into ceremonies, they should do it up right.



Perhaps inspired by such foolishness, LeBron James is working out a deal to announce his selection of an NBA team during a live one-hour ESPN special on Thursday night. At least James will actually be signing some paperwork at his media appearance and not just announcing he plays to play for Team X ... but with the understanding he might change his mind between now and the start of the season.

Hopefully James will have various NBA caps on a table in front of him and do the idiotic reach-for-this-cap-stop-reach-for-that-one-stop-grab-the-third-one-and-put-it-on-his-head move.

Oh well, at least Cook gave the in-state talk shows something to discuss. They can take a break from doing a week-by-week prediction of which games CBS will take or whether ESPN GameDay will be in Fayetteville (not Little Rock, Matt) or debating Heisman contenders a full five months before the award is given or discussing whether Hazen will repeat as 2A-6 champions.