The Sad, Confused Teenager That Is Kevin Hart

As we mentioned last night, the sad saga of Kevin Hart and his phantom recruiting has come to an end with his confession that he made it all up. This blew our minds in ways that surprised us.

The jokes, of course, are there to be made, and we understand: It's an odd little high school drama all wrapped up, a confused kid getting himself in over his head. Realize how much he had to plan here. He had to start the initial rumors about schools interested in him in the first place, he had to call the press conference to announce his "decision" and, in the masterstroke, he actually went through all the trouble to bring hats with him from each of the final two schools and dramatically pick Cal. (We think it's a good sign for Illinois recruiting that he even thought to make them up as a potential suitor.) The most amazing thing about this, we think, is that he ever had the notion that this might work. Surely, someone was going to notice eventually? Or perhaps he thought the Cal Golden Bears would just say, "Well, he says he's going here ... I guess he is!"

It's a vivid, and poignant, reminder that as much as we obsess over college sports recruiting, these are high school kids, prone to the same fits of immaturity we all were at that age. Kevin Hart did something very dumb, because that's what teenagers do: Dumb things. He just happened to do it in an industry that obsesses over the every whim of 17-year-olds. Poor kid.

Prep Football Player Gets Caught In A Lie [Washington Post] Kevin Hart Made The Whole Thing Up [Deadspin]