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The early National Signing period for the nation’s top recruits began Wednesday and extends until Friday. Signing Day is always a weird vanity spectacle where young men who aren’t yet household names sit in front of a bunch of hats and if we’re lucky, they’ll engage a mechanism of suspense before choosing what school they’ll bring their talents to. An underwhelming event, if you ask me. You didn’t? K, never mind.
Cooper Dawson, a three-star defensive end out of Hanahan, South Carolina, has made me reconsider the value of Signing Day by deflecting the spotlight to a friend.
Dawson employed the help of Kingsley Feinman, a friend who battles cerebral palsy, to choose between Clemson, Syracuse and UCF to spend his college years.
Warning: This video may induce chills. The good kind.
Couldn’t have been more happy to share this moment with a good friend of mine. @FeinmanKingsley https://t.co/pWoMXpEaEi
— Cooper Dawson (@Cooper15Dawson) December 19, 2018
The 6’5”, 250 lb. Dawson missed his senior season when he suffered a torn ACL at a Clemson football camp, and described to The Post and Courier in Charleston how Kingsley changed his mindset and aided his recovery.
“I brought Kingsley out here today because he’s inspired me a lot through the torn ACL process. He taught me that the only disability is a bad attitude. And if he can come around with this big ol’ smile on, I can do it just the same.”
Senior Szn w/ @FeinmanKingsley pic.twitter.com/zhL3IZghf7
— Cooper Dawson (@Cooper15Dawson) October 16, 2018
https://twitter.com/FeinmanKingsley/status/1065376798987427840
When most high schoolers are thinking about sneaking alcohol from their parents liquor cabinet, this dude is giving everyone a lesson on humility and compassion. Best of luck to Cooper next year at Syracuse.
That Cooper Dawson kid at Hanahan, man, he's special. Can't get enough of the video of his commitment with Kingsley Feinman. Here are the two of them explaining it in their own words. This commitment to @CuseFootball – just outstanding. What signing day should be. pic.twitter.com/3LyqOmjqnk
— Scott Eisberg (@SEisbergWCIV) December 19, 2018
[h/t For The Win]