Many parents want their children to go to a certain school, usually one close to home. So in that regard, Alex Collins' mother isn't that different.

But Collins' mother might be the first to steal her son's national letter of intent, then run away and hide so her son couldn't fax in his official papers.

Collins is a Rivals.com four-star running back from Plantation, Fla., and he wanted to attend Arkansas. His mother wanted him to stay close to home. Collins didn't change his mind, but his mother reportedly went to extreme measures to keep him from making it official.

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ESPNU talked to Arkansas coach Bret Bielema and he oddly wouldn't discuss Collins, saying he hadn't received his letter of intent. A little while later ESPNU's Corey Long, citing two sources, reported Collins' mother had stolen the papers before her son could fax them to Arkansas, and nobody could find her.

"His mother has confiscated the papers, she took them and she ran," Long said on ESPNU. "They’re looking for her currently. From what I understand Alex is not at the school right now, he’s looking for his mom. She was quite torn up about him leaving so far from home."

HawgSports.com, citing South Florida High School Sports' Twitter account, said Collins had delayed sending in his letter because the family wanted more time for due diligence.

If the ESPNU report of Collins' mother stealing the letter of intent is true (and ESPNU kept couching it during the broadcast by saying they hadn't confirmed the details), it will go down in national signing day lore as one of the zaniest tales ever. Even Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson, who was interviewed on ESPNU after Long's report, chuckled a bit when asked if he'd ever heard anything like it.

"I don't know if I've heard of anyone running away with the papers," Johnson said. "But certainly there are some funny stories with recruiting and it's getting nuttier and nuttier as we go each year."

There were many jokes after the report, like this gem from Greg Couch of FoxSports.com:

ESPN says Alex Collins' Mom stole letter of intent so he couldn't sign w/Arkansas. If he can't run her down, he should be in Big 10 anyway — Greg Couch (@gregcouch) February 6, 2013

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