League worried flood of younger players would drive up costs
NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue might have to deal with some unhappy owners -- and veteran players -- if young players follow the lead of aurice Clarett and enter the NFL draft.
One of these days the NFL will figure out that, despite the popularity of its game, its constitution and by-laws do not supercede the United States' constitution and by-laws. Thursday was not one of those days.
Federal court judge Shira Scheindlin stunned league attorneys by ruling that 20-year-old Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett was eligible for April's draft despite the league's 14-year-old rule banning anyone who was not at least three years removed from his high school graduating class.
Scheindlin rejected every argument and rationalization the league's attorneys brought in support of the rule, saying it violated antitrust laws and was never collectively bargained. If her decision stands it would not only allow Clarett to enter the NFL in April's draft but would also open the floodgates to not only all college players who feel they are ready to play in the NFL but also high school seniors as well.
League scouts and personnel men have long argued that no high school player would ever stand up to the physical demands and mental rigors of the NFL. A few years ago a phenom out of Texas named Ben Gay played less than one season at Baylor before leaving school and disappearing. He played briefly in the Canadian Football League before working to become eligible for the draft.
Eventually he was allowed to be signed as a free agent and at the time it was said by some familiar with him during his high school playing days in Texas that he might have been able to make the jump directly to the NFL, had that been allowed. The late George Young, who was the general manager of the New York Giants' two Super Bowl teams and later worked for many years in the NFL offices in New York, was appalled by that notion, claiming at the time "no high school player could ever come in and play in the NFL.'' This has long been the prevailing sentiment and it eventually led to the eligibility rule that was overturned by Scheindlin.
Clarett played his freshman year for Ohio State's 2002 national championship team, rushing for 1,237 yards and suffering several injuries. When he ran into eligibility problems last year that forced him to leave the university, Clarett hired a New Jersey attorney to challenge the NFL's draft eligibility rules because under the present structure he would not have been eligible to play professional football until 2005.
There are many scouts and NFL personnel men who have said off the record that they questioned if Clarett has the size or speed to survive in the NFL. At best, he is seen as a second-round draft choice and many scouts believe he may not end up successfully negotiating life in the NFL. In his one season with the Buckeyes, Clarett suffered shoulder and ankle injuries that have some wondering if his body could hold up against the pounding an NFL back must take and such doubts have stopped many a young man's progress. While surely some NFL team would take a chance on him, he is clearly not the LeBron James of the NFL in the opinion of every scout that has seen him. He is no slam dunk or whatever the football equivalent might be.
Yet, whether Clarett is ultimately successful or not is really less of an issue than whether or not he can win this case. The NFL has already promised to appeal and if it does not prevail in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals it is likely it would take the case to the Supreme Court.
Although NFL attorney Jeff Pash would not say definitively if the NFL would seek a stay while the ruling, is appealed it is widely anticipated it will.
If the league receives it, Clarett would not be allowed to enter this year's draft pool until the case is finally ruled upon. But if a stay is not granted, Pash admitted he would be free to enter the draft and so would any other player who felt so inclined. Although no one expects a flood of such players, Pittsburgh wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald has already asked for an exemption that would allow him into April's draft, although he was not a party to Clarett's lawsuit.
The issue is so volatile that the league immediately notified all teams it did not want them commenting on the suit or on Clarett. However, long-time agent and Boston-based attorney Brad Blank said he felt the ruling was "legally inevitable'' and went on to point out the havoc that might result.
"As a practical matter it is going to get very more complicated if this decision stands,'' Blank said.
The work load born from having a scouting operation big enough to adequately cover every high school in California or Florida, let alone the country, as well as all the colleges presently playing football, would swell the ranks of every personnel department to the bursting point. Blank believes it is avoidance of such spiraling cost that is the NFL's real concern in the Clarett case rather than worries about the player's health or long-term success.
"If you think for a minute that the NFL cares about the health of these kids, they don't,'' Blank said. "They care about preserving their system and proceeding as expense free as possible. They don't want to be running a minor league operation like baseball has, which costs millions, and they don't want to see their scouting staffs increased to 10 times their present size.
"Just last year they came within three votes of ending NFL Europe (the spring minor league system the league created more than a decade ago to sell the game overseas).''
If the ruling is upheld, not only would Clarett be eligible to enter the April draft but so would any other underclassman who chose to declare. Pash addressed that point, admitting that there would be nothing the league could do to stop an influx of younger players.
"We need, to be faithful to the ruling, to say to other players in light of the ruling there will be a new opportunity to apply for the draft,'' Pash admitted. "It doesn't appear the judge believes there is any bright line we can draw that says players on one side of the line are eligible and others are not.''
Whether Clarett fails or succeeds on the field he will become a breakthrough player if his challenge succeeds. He would be to the NFL what Spencer Haywood was to the NBA when, a year removed from high school, he challenged that league's ban on underclassmen and won. The NBA has since regularly drafted high school seniors and in fact many of its biggest stars -- including Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James -- have gone directly from the high school gym to the NBA arena.
Although the NBA plays a physical brand of basketball that puts young high school players like James at a disadvantage for a time, NFL personnel men insist it is a night and day difference between that brand of physical play and a shot in the head from Baltimore Ravens' linebacker Ray Lewis.
Many college players undergo a remarkable physical reincarnation in their first year or two in the NFL, slathering on layers of muscle under the demanding eye of the teams' strength and conditioning coaches. Scouts insist there are few, if any, 18- to 20-year-old players who could step into the NFL and play along the offensive or defensive line or at linebacker.
Same is true, they say at quarterback, where even seasoned college players from big-time programs often struggle in their first years in the NFL.
About the only positions anyone admits might be a possibility are running back, where the moves change little from Pop Warner to the Super Bowl, and wide receiver. Still, it is difficult to believe that never has there been a high school player or college freshman or sophomore who could flourish in the NFL if given the chance.
So why is the league so deathly afraid of it?
That is difficult to assess but surely one issue is they enjoy the cost-free feeder system they presently have from college football. Why alter a system that develops your players at no cost to you until they are ready to step in and perform at optimum level?
But there are other issues at stake as well. If young players from high school or the early years of college begin to enter the NFL in significant numbers it would cost older veterans their jobs -- which the union would oppose -- and it would often lead to the team that actually developed the younger player for three or four years losing him in free agency just at the time he is ready to be a productive member of NFL society.
The present eligibility rules prevent either of those things from happening. As much as the league speaks of its concerns for young athletes losing their dreams in a foolhardy effort to reach the NFL before they are ready, the fact is the rule has been a business decision from the start.
"The NFL has not justified Clarett's exclusion by demonstrating that the rule enhances competition,'' Scheindlin wrote. "Indeed, Clarett has alleged the very type of injury -- a complete bar to entry into the market for his services -- that the antitrust laws are designed to prevent.''
As of now, Clarett will appear in Indianapolis at the annual NFL scouting combine the week of Feb. 16-24 to be weighed, measured and tested by all 32 NFL teams. It is there where he will face the real judges he has to impress. The ones who will decide his NFL future.
"I have not the slightest doubt he would be treated like any other player,'' Pash said when asked what might happen if Clarett wins his case.
"If he can play, he'll be on the field every weekend. Once he's in the draft, if he's selected or any other player signs a contract, he's in the NFL and we wish him well. Subsequent reversals would not effect his status as an NFL player.''
The NBA, NHL, major league baseball, professional soccer, tennis and golf all have no age restrictions. Youthful players have flourished in all of those sports, the NBA and tennis in particular. The NFL, however, has banned such players, claiming they would be at risk physically and would often lose their chance at a college education, to whatever level they pursue it, by turning pro so young if they fail to live up to expectations.
That may or may not be true and it may or may not be the NFL's real agenda but the important point is that if Scheindlin's ruling is upheld on appeal nothing will ever be the same in the NFL. The genie is out of the bottle. One of these days an 18-year-old who's built like Bo Jackson will be not only on an NFL field but in NFL ads, the same way LeBron James is in today's NBA.
Regardless of whether or not Maurice Clarett ever scores a touchdown he has already scored a victory for himself and for youthful football players everywhere. Now it's up to the replay judges to see if it stands.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4186582/
NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue might have to deal with some unhappy owners -- and veteran players -- if young players follow the lead of aurice Clarett and enter the NFL draft.
One of these days the NFL will figure out that, despite the popularity of its game, its constitution and by-laws do not supercede the United States' constitution and by-laws. Thursday was not one of those days.
Federal court judge Shira Scheindlin stunned league attorneys by ruling that 20-year-old Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett was eligible for April's draft despite the league's 14-year-old rule banning anyone who was not at least three years removed from his high school graduating class.
Scheindlin rejected every argument and rationalization the league's attorneys brought in support of the rule, saying it violated antitrust laws and was never collectively bargained. If her decision stands it would not only allow Clarett to enter the NFL in April's draft but would also open the floodgates to not only all college players who feel they are ready to play in the NFL but also high school seniors as well.
League scouts and personnel men have long argued that no high school player would ever stand up to the physical demands and mental rigors of the NFL. A few years ago a phenom out of Texas named Ben Gay played less than one season at Baylor before leaving school and disappearing. He played briefly in the Canadian Football League before working to become eligible for the draft.
Eventually he was allowed to be signed as a free agent and at the time it was said by some familiar with him during his high school playing days in Texas that he might have been able to make the jump directly to the NFL, had that been allowed. The late George Young, who was the general manager of the New York Giants' two Super Bowl teams and later worked for many years in the NFL offices in New York, was appalled by that notion, claiming at the time "no high school player could ever come in and play in the NFL.'' This has long been the prevailing sentiment and it eventually led to the eligibility rule that was overturned by Scheindlin.
Clarett played his freshman year for Ohio State's 2002 national championship team, rushing for 1,237 yards and suffering several injuries. When he ran into eligibility problems last year that forced him to leave the university, Clarett hired a New Jersey attorney to challenge the NFL's draft eligibility rules because under the present structure he would not have been eligible to play professional football until 2005.
There are many scouts and NFL personnel men who have said off the record that they questioned if Clarett has the size or speed to survive in the NFL. At best, he is seen as a second-round draft choice and many scouts believe he may not end up successfully negotiating life in the NFL. In his one season with the Buckeyes, Clarett suffered shoulder and ankle injuries that have some wondering if his body could hold up against the pounding an NFL back must take and such doubts have stopped many a young man's progress. While surely some NFL team would take a chance on him, he is clearly not the LeBron James of the NFL in the opinion of every scout that has seen him. He is no slam dunk or whatever the football equivalent might be.
Yet, whether Clarett is ultimately successful or not is really less of an issue than whether or not he can win this case. The NFL has already promised to appeal and if it does not prevail in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals it is likely it would take the case to the Supreme Court.
Although NFL attorney Jeff Pash would not say definitively if the NFL would seek a stay while the ruling, is appealed it is widely anticipated it will.
If the league receives it, Clarett would not be allowed to enter this year's draft pool until the case is finally ruled upon. But if a stay is not granted, Pash admitted he would be free to enter the draft and so would any other player who felt so inclined. Although no one expects a flood of such players, Pittsburgh wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald has already asked for an exemption that would allow him into April's draft, although he was not a party to Clarett's lawsuit.
The issue is so volatile that the league immediately notified all teams it did not want them commenting on the suit or on Clarett. However, long-time agent and Boston-based attorney Brad Blank said he felt the ruling was "legally inevitable'' and went on to point out the havoc that might result.
"As a practical matter it is going to get very more complicated if this decision stands,'' Blank said.
The work load born from having a scouting operation big enough to adequately cover every high school in California or Florida, let alone the country, as well as all the colleges presently playing football, would swell the ranks of every personnel department to the bursting point. Blank believes it is avoidance of such spiraling cost that is the NFL's real concern in the Clarett case rather than worries about the player's health or long-term success.
"If you think for a minute that the NFL cares about the health of these kids, they don't,'' Blank said. "They care about preserving their system and proceeding as expense free as possible. They don't want to be running a minor league operation like baseball has, which costs millions, and they don't want to see their scouting staffs increased to 10 times their present size.
"Just last year they came within three votes of ending NFL Europe (the spring minor league system the league created more than a decade ago to sell the game overseas).''
If the ruling is upheld, not only would Clarett be eligible to enter the April draft but so would any other underclassman who chose to declare. Pash addressed that point, admitting that there would be nothing the league could do to stop an influx of younger players.
"We need, to be faithful to the ruling, to say to other players in light of the ruling there will be a new opportunity to apply for the draft,'' Pash admitted. "It doesn't appear the judge believes there is any bright line we can draw that says players on one side of the line are eligible and others are not.''
Whether Clarett fails or succeeds on the field he will become a breakthrough player if his challenge succeeds. He would be to the NFL what Spencer Haywood was to the NBA when, a year removed from high school, he challenged that league's ban on underclassmen and won. The NBA has since regularly drafted high school seniors and in fact many of its biggest stars -- including Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James -- have gone directly from the high school gym to the NBA arena.
Although the NBA plays a physical brand of basketball that puts young high school players like James at a disadvantage for a time, NFL personnel men insist it is a night and day difference between that brand of physical play and a shot in the head from Baltimore Ravens' linebacker Ray Lewis.
Many college players undergo a remarkable physical reincarnation in their first year or two in the NFL, slathering on layers of muscle under the demanding eye of the teams' strength and conditioning coaches. Scouts insist there are few, if any, 18- to 20-year-old players who could step into the NFL and play along the offensive or defensive line or at linebacker.
Same is true, they say at quarterback, where even seasoned college players from big-time programs often struggle in their first years in the NFL.
About the only positions anyone admits might be a possibility are running back, where the moves change little from Pop Warner to the Super Bowl, and wide receiver. Still, it is difficult to believe that never has there been a high school player or college freshman or sophomore who could flourish in the NFL if given the chance.
So why is the league so deathly afraid of it?
That is difficult to assess but surely one issue is they enjoy the cost-free feeder system they presently have from college football. Why alter a system that develops your players at no cost to you until they are ready to step in and perform at optimum level?
But there are other issues at stake as well. If young players from high school or the early years of college begin to enter the NFL in significant numbers it would cost older veterans their jobs -- which the union would oppose -- and it would often lead to the team that actually developed the younger player for three or four years losing him in free agency just at the time he is ready to be a productive member of NFL society.
The present eligibility rules prevent either of those things from happening. As much as the league speaks of its concerns for young athletes losing their dreams in a foolhardy effort to reach the NFL before they are ready, the fact is the rule has been a business decision from the start.
"The NFL has not justified Clarett's exclusion by demonstrating that the rule enhances competition,'' Scheindlin wrote. "Indeed, Clarett has alleged the very type of injury -- a complete bar to entry into the market for his services -- that the antitrust laws are designed to prevent.''
As of now, Clarett will appear in Indianapolis at the annual NFL scouting combine the week of Feb. 16-24 to be weighed, measured and tested by all 32 NFL teams. It is there where he will face the real judges he has to impress. The ones who will decide his NFL future.
"I have not the slightest doubt he would be treated like any other player,'' Pash said when asked what might happen if Clarett wins his case.
"If he can play, he'll be on the field every weekend. Once he's in the draft, if he's selected or any other player signs a contract, he's in the NFL and we wish him well. Subsequent reversals would not effect his status as an NFL player.''
The NBA, NHL, major league baseball, professional soccer, tennis and golf all have no age restrictions. Youthful players have flourished in all of those sports, the NBA and tennis in particular. The NFL, however, has banned such players, claiming they would be at risk physically and would often lose their chance at a college education, to whatever level they pursue it, by turning pro so young if they fail to live up to expectations.
That may or may not be true and it may or may not be the NFL's real agenda but the important point is that if Scheindlin's ruling is upheld on appeal nothing will ever be the same in the NFL. The genie is out of the bottle. One of these days an 18-year-old who's built like Bo Jackson will be not only on an NFL field but in NFL ads, the same way LeBron James is in today's NBA.
Regardless of whether or not Maurice Clarett ever scores a touchdown he has already scored a victory for himself and for youthful football players everywhere. Now it's up to the replay judges to see if it stands.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4186582/
