Yeah, The Kid Who Graduated College At 19 Has Maturity Issues

From a Boston Globe piece on Amobi Okoye, a recent graduate of the University of Louisville who next Sunday will become the youngest person ever selected in the NFL draft:

Okoye skipped two grades in school, started high school as a 12-year-old, and arrived on the Louisville campus at 16. He graduated with a degree in psychology in 3 1/2 years. As a 19-year-old senior last season, Okoye was second on the Cardinals in sacks (8) and tackles for loss (15), and fourth in tackles (55). Louisville defensive coordinator Mike Cassity said Okoye took the leap his senior season from solid player to impact player. It's that potential for growth that has NFL scouts drooling.

But oh no, there's a catch!

Okoye is still growing, on and off the field. Scouts project he could be as tall as 6-4, and while he played at 295 pounds last season, he was 312 as a junior and 305 as a sophomore. The biggest question about Okoye is maturity. Red flags were raised earlier this week when Pro Football Weekly reported Okoye was one of three players who admitted in one-on-one interviews at the combine that they had used marijuana. The others were Georgia Tech wide receiver Calvin Johnson and Clemson defensive end Gaines Adams. The interviews are supposed to be confidential and for the eyes of NFL teams only.

How many more years of this sort of idiocy do we have to endure? And do we really need our sportswriters helping to propagate it? I understand that Christopher L. Gasper (the author) wants to cover his bases, but Okoye's admission is about as relevant to the question of his maturity as would be the discovery that he sometimes fought with siblings when he was 12.

(ESPN.com recently ran an AP story on Okoye that is also worth reading, even if you're not interested in football. He seems like a remarkable kid.)