I suppose I should have asked the eight Colquitt County High football seniors at the Feb. 5 National Signing Day ceremony if any of them had dreams of playing in the XFL.

In case you are still hovering in the clouds over Super Bowl Sunday and the win for the Kansas City Chiefs, a new football league with an old name debuted some time afterwards. Couldn’t find any former Packers on any of the rosters, though, so we will have to settle for sharing in Cam Erving’s success with KC … and Jay Ward’s part in LSU’s run to the CFP title.

I did ask Daijun Edwards if he envisioned himself doing like Erving and one day holding the Lombardi Trophy up high. Naturally the answer was yes, but that is after he makes a push for the Heisman Trophy as the next great University of Georgia running back.

And that’s a point of contention for this writer, that the February signing day is still a big deal even though we are three years into having this early signing period in December. Yes, a majority of your Power 5 conference people fill up their allotment of scholarships the first time these players can sign the letter-of-intent. But like Edwards to UGA and Ward to LSU the year before, there are still important decisions yet to be made after Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Now, if all you do is follow the major programs and rate who had the best recruiting class, you may only consider what happens in February as icing. The meaty part of the cake is already baked.

When I say ‘important decisions,’ I’m not just talking about those one or two highly-rated prospects who could push a big school to the top of the list (like Edwards apparently did for Georgia). To say the February signing day is not a big deal is to disparage what happened in Colquitt County High’s gym both this year and last year.

Last year, Packers were just as happy to be going to Kennesaw State, Savannah State and Georgia Military College. This year, it was a big day for Tennessee Tech, Tennessee-Chattangooa, Ft. Valley State and even a school no one in South Georgia probably knew existed until that day.

Having done 28 of these over the years, every so often I do learn the name of a school I didn’t know about before. Like when the coach says this player is going to “Point University,” I need to sneak into my interview what exactly is “Point University.” Now I know.

And it is my hope that this is always the case every first week of February and in other days still to come. It does matter in Moultrie and other towns like it, and it matters in sports other than football.

•••

Perhaps tonight when Georgia hosts Auburn at Stegman Coliseum we will see the unveiling of the countdown clock. This will tick down the seconds (adjusting for Leap Year, Daylight Savings and the Central Time Zone) towards Sept. 19 and kickoff of Georgia-Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Or, as it may be called all summer long, the ultimate day of reckoning for the Kirby Smart head coaching era.

One has to wonder, has to really wonder, should the Crimson Tide be successful on this date, where will Smart and his staff go from there?

CERTAINLY NOT BACK TO ATHENS!!

By the way, it certainly has been a banner season for Georgia basketball having the projected No. 1 NBA Draft pick on the roster. The Bulldogs had enough of blowing 20-point leads on the road, so they lose by close to 20 at home. There’s lots of ways to build a 2-10 Southeastern Conference record, including overtime losses, and we could do that without The Ant-Man.

Anthony Edwards, either he’s not really as good as advertised, or being on a college team with good but not great freshmen and a handful of O.K. veterans is holding him back. Since this is his home state, he better end up with the Atlanta Hawks and become the next Dominique in a hurry. Not that I encourage tanking on the part of the Hawks; they are bad enough without being intentional about it. You would think that is what Georgia is doing, but that doesn’t make you more attractive to top recruits.

Funny, all the talk about the dark state of college basketball in Georgia. Never mind UGA, Georgia Tech or even Georgia State. The Division II Valdosta State men are on a 13-game winning streak. Go to the extreme opposite end of our borders and NAIA’s Dalton State College just had a 17-game winning streak snapped. That’s the same school who won a national title in 2015 under now retired coach Tony Ingle, who also won it all at the D-II level with Kennesaw St.

I wonder if VSU’s Mike Hefler or current Roadrunner boss Alex Ireland feel Division I ready?

•••

Major League Baseball’s much-in-the-news-lately commissioner Rob Manfred is receiving several rakings by fellow columnists, and some of it believe it or not does not involve a certain cheating scandal. Much more on that further down.

One state writer really took Manfred to task over the proposal to change baseball’s playoff structure, one that would allow some teams in the wild-card round to actually chose whom they wish to play. Are we back on the playground, where somebody carries the lifelong stigma of “last boy picked?” If you can choose your opponent for a baseball game, can that opponent then choose your team’s starting pitcher?

Yes, this is, in short, a stupid idea, and it would be a big surprise to see it gain any traction. But in Manfred’s defense, he did take away the connection to winning the All-Star Game with World Series home field advantage. This other proposal, as some would suggest, might just be a squirrel or a red herring, something to distract us from the real issues in baseball.

Didn’t quite work. You can’t go too many hours since spring training camps started filling up when somebody’s got two cents worth of stone casting to do about the Houston Astros organization and the punishment it received for stealing signs electronically. And yes, anyone affiliated with the Astros during this time can do nothing but take each and every verbal lashing given out and make feeble attempts for forgiveness.

The word ‘feeble’ is used not to downgrade their sincerity, but to show that forgiveness isn’t a trait found too often in the major sports world. With championships and awards like Most Valuable Player come incentive pay-outs in one’s contract. It’s something nobody else in the sport would ever partake in now that the first team got caught with trash can lids in hand.

Just make the Astros wear uniforms with a big red C on them all season. We know it won’t stand for ‘captain.’

We get this from the Atlanta Braves camp and Nick Markakis: “I feel every single guy over there (Houston) needs a beating.” Again, must pull out a kindergarten or Middle Ages reference. Who exactly is to administer this beating?

Messing with careers, we get it. Manfred is another one put in a major position of authority and automatically becomes clueless. Matters should then be taken in the hands of those impacted the most.

That brings us to the fear of retaliation. Manfred met this week with all managers in both Florida and Arizona with this message: “Retaliation by throwing at a player intentionally will not be tolerated, whether it’s Houston or anyone else. It’s dangerous and not helpful to the current situation.”

That takes care of the people under his jurisdiction. Then there’s the rest of the world. Fortunately, the Astros aren’t scheduled to play the Los Angeles Dodgers, not at home nor in Southern California. Atlanta Braves fans get the chance to bring their signs out to Tourist Trap Park (or whatever it’s called now) for the regular season finale in late September. By then, all the good taunting statements may be used up.

It’s playing in Yankee Stadium that’s going to be a problem. At the old stadium, Reggie Jackson had to put a batting helmet on to play right field in the middle of the last inning as a World Series clinching win was coming to a close, and he played for the home team. Five years ago the Baltimore Orioles hosted a game in an empty stadium due to civil unrest around Camden Yards.

Any Astros-Yankees game not played in Houston should not only be played in an empty stadium, but in an UNDISCLOSED empty stadium somewhere far away. Otherwise, I’m not sure they could even get to the city – let alone the stadium – in one collective piece.