FAYETTEVILLE -- Remember the Super Bowl as all the Division I college football teams commence national signing day today.
Remember them well, some of Sunday's Super Bowl heroes in New England's victory over Seattle.
Think of them before bragging on the four-stars and five-stars your favorite college team secures today while bemoaning the four-star and five-star players "lost" and your team having to "settle" for two-star or lower-ranked players taking their roster space but not their place in your recruiting dreams.
As the Super Bowl showed Sunday, some of those two-star players and even some without stars ultimately far outshine those originally deemed the galaxy's best and brightest.
Even coming out of the University of Michigan, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, now a four-time Super Bowl champion with credentials for consideration as the NFL's best-ever quarterback, was the sixth-round draft choice that New England settled for in 2000.
Other quarterbacks drafted ahead of Brady included Chad Pennington, Giovanni Carmazzi, Chris Redman, Tee Martin, Marc Bulger and Spergon Wynn. None still play in the NFL, and none played like Brady.
Patriots receiver Julian Edelman, who had 9 catches for 109 yards and 1 touchdown against Seattle, was a seventh-round draft choice from Kent State.
Seattle Seahawks receiver Chris Matthews, seven catches for 109 yards, was undrafted out of University of Kentucky, was cut as a free agent by the Cleveland Browns, and drifted in and out of the Canadian Football League. Matthews worked for Foot Locker when the Seahawks gave him a tryout.
Malcolm Butler, the New England defensive back with the game-clinching interception at the Patriots 1, was bestowed by Brady the new MVP truck originally given the Patriots' quarterback.
In a football state dominated by the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Auburn Tigers, few in Alabama would have known to give Butler the time of day much less a truck when he graduated from the University of West Alabama. Apparently NFL scouts didn't know him either. Nobody drafted him.
Butler signed with New England in 2014 as a free agent. Now he will be hounded by many begging to be his agent.
If NFL scouts and general managers can miss like that given all their data and years seeing these players develop in college, you surely can't expect college coaches recruiting during the time they aren't coaching to always have a handle on how the high school athletes of today will develop as college players tomorrow.
Just know that the Arkansas Razorbacks, for example, aren't alone with bygone five-stars forgotten soon after the ink dries in their elaborate signing ceremonies, while a signing day offer to Earl Scott resulted in the starting center of Arkansas' 1995 SEC West champions.
Also remember that similar stories to Arkansas walk-ons like the late Brandon Burlsworth, who earned All-America honors, or George Wilson, the former receiver and undrafted free agent who just completed his 11th season as an NFL safety, happen all over.
Even in the Super Bowl.
Sports on 02/04/2015