Signing day leftovers

There are certain components you can always count on for National Signing Day.
1. The teenagers signing scholarship papers will be seated behind a long cafeteria-style table in either the lunchroom, library or gymnasium.
2. Parents, teachers, classmates and newspaper photographers will take enough photographs to rival the paparazzi's latest Britney Spears sighting. The kids will sign their national letters of intent and it will be treated as if they're affixing their names to the Declaration of Independence. But then Aunt Berta's camera will have jammed and they'll have to pose again with their pens suspended above their important documents.
3. If the TV camera crews are late (and they generally are), then they will stage a signing. Instead of signing letters of intent, the athletes will probably be signing their names to blank scrap paper.
4. The football players will be referred to by someone -- most likely the high school principal -- as ''student-athletes.'' When they get to college, most will become ''athlete-students.''
5. If a player has multiple offers from high-profile programs, he may milk the moment for maximum suspense. He might have, for example, several different team baseball caps hidden beneath the table and take turns putting them on and teasing the fans of those respective schools until finally finding the hat and program that best fits.
6. You can count on the idiot faction to emerge when a player who has been verbally committed to a school spurns that program for another on signing day. Carver High School wide receiver Jarmon Fortson was labeled a ''traitor'' among other things for backing out of a commitment to Auburn and signing with Florida State on Wednesday. Prospects across the country caught a ridiculous amount of heat for doing the same thing. Here's the thing: Fortson didn't turn his signing into a major media event or a joke. He changed his mind, which 18-year-olds tend to do from time to time. It doesn't make him a bad person. It makes him human.
7. You can count on the same idiot fans to not say anything when their favorite team ''turns'' a prospect who had been verbally committed to a rival program.
8. When interviewed about their decision, many of the ''student-athletes'' will say they signed with Big State U. because Coach So-and-So ''cared about me.'' Within a few months, they'll be cursing Coach So-and-So with every other breath for being so tough on them.
9. Fans will obsess over how their programs' recruiting classes fared in the rankings compiled by Scout.com, ESPN.com, Rivals.com and any other outlet whose name if followed by a period and a ''com.'' It's true that many of the top programs are where they are because of how many five-star players they signed, but how do you explain the sudden success of signing day non-factors like Missouri and Kansas?
10. At most every player signing, cake and sodas will be served. That's reason enough to attend.