If you needed proof that football in this area is considered a secondary sport, at best, here it is: There is precisely one player from the state of Maryland on a list that purports to rank the 100 top high school football players in the country, and exactly none from the Baltimore area. But that's hardly the chief thing wrong with the Takkle.com Top 100.

This list, which is distributed through Sports Illustrated.com, is a prime example of a serious inherent flaw with the trend of nationalization of high school athletics. How in the name of Amos Alonzo Stagg can anyone purport to know which of the millions of kids who play prep football is the best? There are too many kids, too many schools and too many variables in the level of play among the 50 states and the District of Columbia to make an informed call on which team is the best, much less, which kid.

And to make matters worse, the list allows readers to vote on whether a kid is overrated or underrated. Are you kidding? With all due respect to you, the dear reader, there's no way that a guy sitting at a computer in Woodlawn or Columbia or Bel Air should pass judgment on the skills and abilities of a kid in another area, especially if his only frame of reference is his kid and a short video clip on the site. Officials at Sports Illustrated, arguably the most revered name in American sports journalism, should be ashamed to take part in such nonsense.

For the record, the only Maryland-based player on the list is DeMatha receiver Kenny Tate, who comes in at No. 57.