Pssst. Here's a secret. Football stardom is a lot tougher than it looks.

Who's seen the Back to the Future movies?

Remember when the Michael J. Fox character (Marty McFly) buys a sports almanac at an antique shop in the year 2025. It has stuff like the winners for the last 30 Super Bowls.

So when McFly takes his DeLorean back to 1985 he'll make it tough for Vegas to pay the light bill every month.

That was cool. Imagnine reading something and already knowing exactly how it was all going to turn out.

I got that feeling the other day after a wife-mandated clean-up session in my home office. Her smile gets wider with every old Sports Illustrated or Sporting News football preview I send to the recycling bin.

What's my point? Well, it gave me the chance to go back and re-read those old football previews. The high school recruiting stuff always catches my eye.

I can't help checking to see just how many of the so-called can't-miss kids pan out. It's my Back to the Future moment.

Here's the spoiler: Most of them miss. Big.

I found out as much while scanning a 2002 list of the Top 25 prep players in the nation.

Jeff Francoeur (yes, that one) was pegged as one of the top defensive backs in the nation. He had like 12 interceptions his junior year. He signed with Clemson before the Atlanta Braves ended his football flirtation by adding seven figures to his student checking account.

I still think he'd be another John Lynch at Clemson if he never took that offer. But he's far better off with Bobby Cox than Tommy Bowden. Way better off.

There are others. What about James Banks? He was one of the top two quarterbacks. He flopped around at Tennessee before being dismissed from the team due to drug issues.His last sighting was in Division III football.

Do Daniel Coats and Richard Washington ring any bells? They were the top wide receivers in the nation. Dedrick Poole? Who remembers that All-American running back? Who knows that he's a senior receiver with 15 career catches at Arkansas now? Super agent Drew Rosenhaus is not exactly on the speed dial of those guys, huh?

There were some hits. Atlanta Falcons rookie runner Jerious Norwood was there. So were Darnell Bing, Kedric Golston, Reggie McNeal, Pat Watkins and Eric Winston. All of those guys were NFL draft picks this year.

But Francoeur has the biggest name of them all. And he made it in baseball. There wasn't one first-round draft pick on that Top 25.

Two other players were among the nation's best that year. Vince Young. Maurice Clarett. See what I mean? Hit or miss.

The list of the top players in Georgia is interesting, too.

Joe Terenshinski of Athens Academy was the top QB. Funny. There are more than a few UGA fans I know who are shamed to admit their glee when Thomson's Jasper Brinkley fell on Tereshinski's ankle and ushered new golden boy Matthew Stafford under center.

Auburn's all-everything Kenny Irons and NFL draft pick Leonard Pope are on the Georgia list. But so are local standouts like Screven County's Michael Cooper and Hephzibah's Brad Lee that never panned out. Washington-Wilkes linemen Merci Fallaise and Antonio Mercier are on there. Fallaise is a third-team tackle at N.C. State. Mercier was diagnosed with diabetes upon arriving in Athens and never practiced or played.

A friend of mine in Charleston once said you'd have better luck in stocks than picking out which high school players make it and which ones don't. He's right.

Keep that in mind next time you see one of those lists. All in all, the list that I salvaged from Clutter City deserves to be where it's going: The trash.

Most of the football careers of these can't-miss kids are already in the garbage can anyway.