The Helicopter Parent Descends on College Football

This isn't helicopter parenting. It's merely nepotistic opportunism. These parents are desperate not only for the attention, but for the potential financial upside of a pro athlete salary. It's really quite pathetic to see "adults" inserting themselves into their kids' lives to for purely selfish purposes.

A true helicopter parent would prohibit his or her kids from playing such a dangerous sport.

No comment, but not surprised at anything anymore.

Ridiculous.

Lighten up. Most of these families are from the low end of the social-economic scale and are sacrificing their children’s health for an education while all the adults get filthy rich. (Saban makes over $8M, Pruitt makes ~$4M and that tight ends coach from UT who is appalled is the lowest paid coach on the staff yet makes over $200k). And don’t group this in with the parents that Lycott-Haims usually studies: White, upper middle class suburban parents who spend their time/money hiring private coaches/tutors for school, club sports, SAT prep and even college applications.

The parents certainly deserve their photo opp’s. After all, they’ve sacrificed time and money and who knows what else to get their children to this level. I just hope the parents are still around to care for their kids when they have debilitating brain disorders attributed to playing football.

When are we going to celebrate National Signing Day for students, not athletes? Let’s celebrate those students enrolling in colleges and universities for their academic achievements!

The whole "signing" phenomenon is inappropriate and a bit vulgar, and now weird as well. A lot of the kids who "sign" to a football team are too young to sign a binding contract anyway. It's disappointing to see universities allowing their football teams to monopolize the process of deciding which school certain students will attend, and disappointing to see the process amplify the sport's obvious professionalism and reduce the academic mission of the university to less than an afterthought, a mere pretext.

Pls write more articles about helicopter parenting. It’s an epidemic in Manhattan and I truly think it’s changing our society. We could use more articles explaining how unhealthy it is to parents. Signed, Part time nanny of 10 years with a whole lot of experience witnessing dysfunctional families.