If you thought it was awkward having to go to two different dinners on Thanksgiving because your parents divorced, imagine what it’s like to be 5-star football recruit Malik McDowell, who is dealing with some new national attention thanks to a disagreement between his mom and dad. The Southfield High star announced his commitment to Michigan State during a National Signing Day event at his school on Wednesday, but he was the only one of his teammates who couldn’t do anything with his letter of intent. That’s because his mom won’t sign it because she hates MSU.
Instead, Joya Crowe wants her son to go to Florida State or Ohio State, and mommmmmmm why are you embarrassing me like this?!?!
McDowell’s mother, Joya Crowe, is the custodial parent and Crowe has made it clear she does not want her son at MSU. Crowe’s wishes are to have her son go to Florida State or Ohio State.
McDowell and his mother must sign the letter-of-intent and send it to a university for it to be valid, but Crowe was not present at the signing day ceremony and Michigan State has not received the document. McDowell is 17 and an athlete must be 21 until he or she can sign and complete a letter-of-intent without the signature of a parent or guardian.
Greg McDowell said he has joint legal custody over his son, “but I am not the custodial parent; she is. She did her homework on this. (Via Detroit News)
Meanwhile, Malik’s father, Greg McDowell, claims that he’s confident that this situation will be resolved within the 14 days that they have to get the letter submitted. Greg claims that Joya’s issue isn’t with MSU as much as she wants to know why Malik wants to be a Spartan so badly. Others familiar with the situation seem to think it’s a lot messier.
“The mom is the issue,” [Rivals.com national recruiting editor Mike] Farrell said. “She hates Michigan State. The father wants Ohio State. The mother wants Ohio State or Florida State. Malik wants Michigan State. He’s upset how public his mom has made it — on radio, social media and elsewhere.
“They’ve got to get it resolved. They’ve had months to talk about this. But I don’t see her as the giving-in type of person.”
According to the Detroit Free Press, Malik has several options if his mom doesn’t come around and he remains hellbent on MSU. The most realistic option is that he can sign a Big Ten tender instead of the letter of intent, and the only difference would be that other schools can still try to convince him to transfer, because he wouldn’t have to adhere to the same transfer rules as other student-athletes for his freshman year.
Or he could take a page out of Zack Morris’s book and hire an actor to pretend that he’s an official from the school he doesn’t want to go to, and she’ll be so offended by his behavior, that she’ll have no choice but to let him go to MSU. Or he could hire a woman to play his mom and forge the signature in front of school officials, but then I think he’d end up in jail or something. Zack Morris is a bad influence.
(Banner via Getty)
