Suspended Ohio State sophomore running back Maurice Clarett has filed suit against the National Football League to allow him to enter their 2004 draft. The suit argues that a league rule enacted in 1990 prohibiting players from entering the draft until they have been out of high school for three years, violates antitrust law and harms competition.
The NFL counters that the rule was adopted because owners and coaches don’t believe younger players are physically ready for pro competition.
Clarett, who ran for 1,237 yards in route to leading Ohio State to the national championship as a freshman last year, got into this predicament after an investigation determined he broke NCAA bylaws concerning benefits for athletes and that he later lied to investigators.
There’s more to this story than meets the eye.
First, while I’m no lawyer, precedent seems to be in favor of Clarett. The same arguments that allowed college underclassmen and high school players to enter the NBA, and the fact that baseball and hockey routinely draft high school athletes, seems to suggest that anyone who wishes to pursue work in professional sports cannot be arbitrarily disallowed.
The NFL has always used college football as its minor league system, and their reasoning is somewhat disingenuous. They don’t want to have a deluge of underclassmen entering their draft and devaluing the college game as has happened in basketball, where players lacking the fundamentals, leave college early and then take several years to develop fully in the pros. All while costing teams huge sums of money.
But I have to agree with the league on the issue of physical preparedness, as well as other factors.
Football is not basketball. Basketball is a physical sport, where big men push each other around the court and occasionally bump into one another. Football is a violent game, where great big men try to hit each other with all the force they can muster, where broken bones and concussions are an accepted part of the game, and most players retire with some ailment that will haunt them the rest of their days.
No 18 year old belongs in that world. If you are a parent with a football playing son, you don’t want him on the same field with Warren Sapp, Michael Strahan or Jevon Kearse. His still forming physique would get mangled and broken. Seriously.
Football is not basketball in other respects. They only play a 16 game regular season, and there really isn’t time for a youngster to develop. Training camps are 6 weeks long, with as many as 80 players invited to camp, before cut down to rosters of 53. Coaches don’t have time to “teach” football fundamentals. And the difference between a pro playbook and a college one is like comparing the assembly instructions for a model airplane to the blue prints for an F-15. A player with one year of college or less cannot realistically expect to grasp the intricacies of NFL offensive and defensive formations.
NFL owners are not like their counterparts in basketball and baseball. They collectively wrote the book on how to run a successful sports industry, when they all agreed to revenue sharing more than 40 years ago. Every franchise is making money, regardless of market size; they have labor peace (if not in fact acquiescence) and there will be no rush to cook the goose that annually lays the golden eggs. Clarett may get his wish to enter the draft, but even Heisman Trophy winners have been known to go in later rounds. Don’t be surprised if there is no rush to pick him, just to set an example for all those who might follow.
Maurice Clarett created his own problem. Last year there were hints he was less interested in the “student” part of being a student-athlete, and this year’s trouble seems to bear that out. If he’s as good a player as he was last year, a pro career will be there. With the average career span of an NFL running back at 5 years, he would do well to stay in school and get an education. A college degree holds a far more lasting promise than a football career started at age 20.
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BASEBALL
The American League playoff situation is set. The Yankees and Twins will face off on Tuesday, while Oakland and Boston start their action the following day.
The National League picture is still incomplete. Florida has clinched at least a tie for the wildcard spot, while the NL Central remains undecided.
And in a game that means nothing in the standings, Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Carlos Delgado (one of my baby daddies), joined a very exclusive club, hitting four home runs in one game, only the 15th player in Major League history to do so. His first on the night was also his career 300th, making him the 98th player ever to reach that mark.
The Blue Jays beat Tampa Bay 10-8.