Student Well-Being

National Signing Day Brings Out Best and Worst of High School Football

By Bryan Toporek — February 07, 2014 1 min read
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College football’s National Signing Day came and went with a bang on Wednesday, highlighting the highs and lows of high school football.

Alabama coach Nick Saban, who landed the No. 1 recruiting class in the country, per 247sports.com and ESPN.com, pulled off one of the more heartwarming moves of the day, too. He offered a scholarship to a player who will never play a snap for the team due to a career-ending neck injury, reports ESPN.com’s Alex Scarborough.

Former defensive tackle Elisha Shaw of Tucker, Ga., suffered a serious neck injury on the second day of summer practice this past year, according to Scarborough. The strained ligaments in his neck will never heal, Shaw’s high school coach told ESPN.com, and will eventually require surgery.

Saban, who offered Shaw a scholarship back in 2012, held true to his offer despite the player’s injury. Shaw will be on a “medical scholarship,” he told ESPN.com, not a football scholarship, allowing Alabama to offer another player a spot on the team. He hopes to serve either as a coach or a volunteer assistant, per Scarborough.

No National Signing Day is complete without one or two outlandish stories, however, and this year was no different.


Dacorious “D.J.” Law, a three-star prospect from Haines City, Fla., reportedly signed a National Letter of Intent with three different schools,

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A version of this news article first appeared in the Schooled in Sports blog.