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Zombies, skydiving and bus-pulling: How to commit in 2K16

Megan Ryan / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 7 years ago

I’m not even sorry about this ensuing blog post.

I took it upon myself today to take a deep dive into the recent phenomenon of commitment videos. Long gone are the days when prospective college football players would tweet a screenshot of a note on their iPhones, detailing how great the recruiting process has been, how grateful the players are for the schools/their coaches/their friends/their family, before deciding to continue their football career at [Name of School] [Said School’s Catchphrase].

Those quaint little ceremonies at players’ high schools where they put on the chosen school’s hat are a dying breed.

Now, it is about making a big production. As in film production. As in Acting. As in Cinematography. As in Friends and Family Becoming Momentary Movie Stars.

It’s incredibly extra and extremely outrageous, but we all love it, don’t lie to yourself.

I’m going to detail some of my faves I have found. Most are from Bleacher Report, which started its high-quality short films last year, I believe.

Kai-Leon Herbert to Michigan

This one just came out yesterday, and it is easily the best one yet. The Walking Dead and football recruiting just go hand-in-hand, don’t they? I’d like to know what the other schools he was considering think of Herbert viciously killing their zombie counterparts. But a million kudos for the creativity.

Deontay Anderson to Ole Miss

He went skydiving! Can you believe?! I’m a morbid person, so I just keep thinking about how terribly this could have ended. Again, would like to know what his future coaches think of this risky behavior, lmao.

Parker Boudreaux to Notre Dame

Can you believe he pulled a 16,000-pound school bus? Can you?

Nigel Knott to Alabama

NO QUESTIONS. Yeah, who cares about the media?

Quinn Nordin to Penn State ... er, JK

I couldn’t help myself. No. 1, this is so bougie, can you believe (sorry that can you believe is my unofficial slogan). And No. 2, he decommitted and went to Michigan. You would think he would have tried to get this video taken down, but I digress.

Also, I was going to make a joke about remembering how I made a video to announce my college decision back in the day, but Bleacher Report is more self-aware than I expected. (Side note, I applied to one school, the in-state public one, and delayed accepting as long as I could because I was Chris “I don’t play sports, I do plays” Evans).

And here’s some honorable mentions for y’all:

The Hollywood sign

The flaming paw of death in the sky

The plane over Atlantic City

The very fake Times Square billboard

The graffiti that I hope is real and still there

The symbolism of Matt Dotson leaping over a Penn State guy on his way to committing to Michigan State

There are more, oh, so more, out there. So happy Google searching. I also need to share this distressing one from an aspiring journalist from my home state, who not only snubbed my alma mater and my beat, but, in fact, chose Missouri. Sigh.

I hope this has been entertaining for everyone. It certainly was for me. Email or tweet me your personal favorites or any I might have missed. Now I’ve got to focus on my actual story for tomorrow about the new and very on-trend Power-Five initiative, Flex 21 (Now my whole team flexin’).