Say tomorrow you decided to chuck it all to join the circus. Maybe you can juggle cantaloupes, walk on stilts or floss a tiger’s teeth.
Great. For your next trick, convince the circus to hire you.
If you’re good enough, it will. If you’re not, it won’t.
Remember this while worrying whether the Maurice Clarett decision is the end of civilization or just the ruination of the NFL/college football development system.
A federal judge has ruled that anyone from Clarett, the former Ohio State running back, to Tom Cruise is now free to join the NFL, even if they are less than three years removed from high school.
We’re all eligible to fly helicopters, too, but that doesn’t guarantee we’ll do it well enough for somebody to pay us. It takes two to play the game. And while there may be a sucker born every minute, there aren’t too many running NFL franchises.
So relax. Don’t sweat this fantasy that NFL camps will soon be overrun with 18-year-olds with no interest in attending college but with no business being in the camp, lest they get killed.
That won’t happen because, unlike in the NBA, the difference between men and boys in football is staggering.
If there’s a high-school kid physically and emotionally prepared to play the most violent sport at its most violent level, he’s the rarest of beasts.
However, should Robo-Kid arrive one day, and should an NFL general manager decide he’s worth the investment, more power to them both.
On a common sense level, the judge ruled correctly. The NFL’s restriction on who can seek employment when always seemed to beg to be stricken.
It’s common sense, too, that kids won’t skip college if there’s no football job market.
Leaving college early, though, is another matter. That’s the box that Clarett has pried wide open, to the dismay of those vested in the NFL and its collegiate farm teams.
The default theory is that the aspiring pro will bolt college and forgo his “education’’ the minute he draws the NFL’s eye. Why risk the career-ending hit in college if you can risk it for money?
That sounds good, except that potentially great draft-eligible players have routinely returned for more seasoning to spike their draft status and signing bonus.
What really scares people is the open door, as if college basketball coaches couldn’t tell you stories. The Clarett ruling dramatically reduces a coach’s control, and who likes giving up power?
Now that three years of college ball from a player aren’t guaranteed, recruiting, redshirting and playing-time decisions are a whole new ballgame, with new pressures.
Not to mention that the influence of player agents, already a nuisance to college coaches, will go through the roof.
Certainly, land mines exist for the impressionable youngster, but freedom demands responsibility. Players will get burned by bad advice, but that happens now. Players will blow their college eligibility in failed pro bids, but that happens now, too.
If they don’t like it, if they fear for our youth, the NFL can develop a real minor-league system. And the colleges, the NFL’s lock-step partner, can quit the care and feeding of America’s future superstars.
Sure they will.
The market is free or it isn’t. It can’t be both.
http://home.hamptonroads.com
Great. For your next trick, convince the circus to hire you.
If you’re good enough, it will. If you’re not, it won’t.
Remember this while worrying whether the Maurice Clarett decision is the end of civilization or just the ruination of the NFL/college football development system.
A federal judge has ruled that anyone from Clarett, the former Ohio State running back, to Tom Cruise is now free to join the NFL, even if they are less than three years removed from high school.
We’re all eligible to fly helicopters, too, but that doesn’t guarantee we’ll do it well enough for somebody to pay us. It takes two to play the game. And while there may be a sucker born every minute, there aren’t too many running NFL franchises.
So relax. Don’t sweat this fantasy that NFL camps will soon be overrun with 18-year-olds with no interest in attending college but with no business being in the camp, lest they get killed.
That won’t happen because, unlike in the NBA, the difference between men and boys in football is staggering.
If there’s a high-school kid physically and emotionally prepared to play the most violent sport at its most violent level, he’s the rarest of beasts.
However, should Robo-Kid arrive one day, and should an NFL general manager decide he’s worth the investment, more power to them both.
On a common sense level, the judge ruled correctly. The NFL’s restriction on who can seek employment when always seemed to beg to be stricken.
It’s common sense, too, that kids won’t skip college if there’s no football job market.
Leaving college early, though, is another matter. That’s the box that Clarett has pried wide open, to the dismay of those vested in the NFL and its collegiate farm teams.
The default theory is that the aspiring pro will bolt college and forgo his “education’’ the minute he draws the NFL’s eye. Why risk the career-ending hit in college if you can risk it for money?
That sounds good, except that potentially great draft-eligible players have routinely returned for more seasoning to spike their draft status and signing bonus.
What really scares people is the open door, as if college basketball coaches couldn’t tell you stories. The Clarett ruling dramatically reduces a coach’s control, and who likes giving up power?
Now that three years of college ball from a player aren’t guaranteed, recruiting, redshirting and playing-time decisions are a whole new ballgame, with new pressures.
Not to mention that the influence of player agents, already a nuisance to college coaches, will go through the roof.
Certainly, land mines exist for the impressionable youngster, but freedom demands responsibility. Players will get burned by bad advice, but that happens now. Players will blow their college eligibility in failed pro bids, but that happens now, too.
If they don’t like it, if they fear for our youth, the NFL can develop a real minor-league system. And the colleges, the NFL’s lock-step partner, can quit the care and feeding of America’s future superstars.
Sure they will.
The market is free or it isn’t. It can’t be both.
http://home.hamptonroads.com
