As we are all well aware in 2017, mixing sports and politics rarely leads to cordial conversations. Most recently, politicians have even been inserting themselves into college football coaching ordeals. Taking things to the next level, we now have a politician mixing it up on Twitter with a high school football player over his decision on where to play in college.

Earlier this week, Oregon coach Willie Taggart left after one season to take his “dream job” as head of the Florida State program. As often happens in these situations, incoming recruits who were partial to the head coach or a specific assistant on that coach’s staff reconsider their commitments and open their recruitment back up. Such was the case for Braden Lenzy, a four-star talent from Tigard, Oregon, who announced that was opening his recruitment back up.

Lenzy has previously committed to play for Notre Dame before spurning them to commit to Oregon. Per OregonLive, he holds offers from California, Colorado, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Oregon, Oregon State, Purdue, Stanford, UCLA, USC and Washington State. He also said that the Ducks remain in the mix even though he rescinded his verbal commitment.

Of course, because college sports bring out both the best and worst in us, Lenzy has had to deal with a few jerks on social media, taking the kid to task for changing his mind. One of those jerks just so happens to be Oregon state representative Bill Post, who decided to give Lenzy a piece of his mind on Twitter following the de-commitment.

Just in case anyone thinks Post might try to pull a Donald Trump and claim his bad tweet was written by someone else, his Twitter profile says, “Tweets are ALWAYS by me not staff.”

Lots of Oregon fans took Post to task for his comments.

For his part, Post didn’t back down about his criticism of a teenager making a personal decision, citing the classic “I’m a season ticket holder” defense.

Oddly, Post doesn’t seem to hold any ill-will towards Taggart for leaving Oregon after one season, understanding that the coach made a personal decision to better his own career.

Ultimately, Lenzy can go wherever he wants and is allowed to make the best decision for himself and his family. He doesn’t owe Oregon Ducks fans anything, even if he’s from the area. As Post proved, they’re just as likely to turn on him at a moment’s notice as they are to cheer for him. At the end of the day, the kid is going to take care of himself, and in the shady world of college athletics, that’s all any player can do. The last thing they should ever do is listen to what biased fans think is best for them, especially ones like Bill Post who don’t actually care about the kid’s well-being.

[Oregon Live]

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Editorial Strategy Director for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.

1 thought on “Former Oregon Ducks recruit gets trash-talked by state representative after he decommits

  1. What is the point in 3900 following this kid on twitter along with a blue check mark? Kudos to him for getting even that many despite being so cosmically irrelevant.

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