Playing Favorites

I have been playing football for 14 years, I've played through pee wee all the way up until the collegiate level.  Speaking from experience, as i progressed throughout my playing career i could see how the intensity picked up.  But there was a more glaring observation I picked up on along the way, which was the concept of playing favorites.  Coming out of high school I was a really good solid running back who put up some impressive numbers, and that lead me to getting recruiting letters from big Universities like Penn St, Maryland, Rutgers just to name a few.  Of course that was exciting news for a 18 year old who wants to take their playing career to the top level of college football which would be Division 1.  Then it was time to actually visit some of those schools to see the what they were all about, and of course talk football.  I looked around and there were about 20 other guys from all over the country just like me looking to hopefully play big time Division 1 football, but then as the the tours started i felt left out, because some of the recruiters didn't know me or show any attention to me.  some guys in the group got the majority of the attention and coaches would talk in depth with them more than they would I.  The coaches would take us to watch film to see what kind of system they work with, then would tell a couple of the other guys, how good they looked in their highlight tapes.  But no one coach told me about my tape and how impressive i looked, and this trend would occur several places i went to visit.  After that phase of the recruiting process was over and i still have not received any calls, i came to the realization how all of those coaches at those Universities minds were already set on who they wanted, and it was all about playing favorites and not really giving a chance.  My former teammate and current college roommate Tyrell Coon went through something very similar, almost identical. He stated "All of of the colleges that recruited me said i was a great player, but since growing up and playing football in New York City, it hurt my chances because we aren't known for our football."  That seems to happen more than people think, but being on the outside looking in people don't really see how coaches manage this.  Not only does it happen at the high school level, but the college level as well.  My mother told me after our experience "Its not how much you know, Its all about who you know."