The Observer, April 8, 2005
Volume XXXVII, Issue 24
Athletes should be able to leave early for the pros
Maurice Clarett, former star running back for the 2002 National Champion Ohio State Buckeyes, has had little support from television commentators and sports editorialists recently. Clarett has been ridiculed in the media as a fool for challenging the NFL's ban on players who are sophomores and younger entering the NFL draft. He lost the battle for early entry into pro football. Additionally, he has not played football for two years after losing his collegiate eligibility by declaring for the NFL draft and violating NCAA rules.
Underclassman football players are eligible for the draft, but only after their junior year or three years after high school graduation. Therefore, high schoolers, college freshmen, and college sophomores cannot go into the NFL. Clarett challenged this rule in court, initially winning his case, but later the ruling was overturned by a higher court. Before all of the controversy, Clarett was a sure-fire first-round draft choice had he entered the NFL after three years of playing college football. Now, he may not even be drafted after running a terrible 4.75-second 40-yard dash at the scouting combine. Moreover, NFL teams are reluctant to pick a player who has been out of football for two years and is mired in controversy.
Clarett's agent had this to say about how Maurice will fare in the 2006 NFL draft: "We're not that concerned with where he goes, because wherever he's drafted is going to be far below where his talent level really is."
This is very true, because I remember the 2002-2003 Ohio State championship season, where Clarett showed his amazing abilities as a 19-year-old freshman. He was elusive, quick, powerful, and was already one of the two or three best running backs in college football. However, 2002 seems like 100 years ago in terms of people remembering his talent. Clarett will lose millions by being drafted several rounds lower than he otherwise would have been. His owes his current predicament partially to his own bad decision-making but also to the rule banning young players from entering the NFL early.
Yet, baseball, basketball, golf, soccer, and nearly all other sports besides football allow young athletes to turn professional as soon as they are able to compete. Basketball players like Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett have been successful coming directly out of high school into professional sports. Many tennis players turn professional before even graduating high school, and few to none play college tennis.
Another example of a teen going straight to the pros is LeBron James. He, of course, has been wildly successful, earning millions and attaining adoration from media and fans. Like Clarett, LeBron would have been ineligible for college sports because of violations against NCAA policy such as receiving gifts and directly profiting from his talents. But this was of no concern for James because the NBA allows high schoolers to make the jump directly to the pros.
Maurice Clarett, unlike his good friend LeBron James, plays a sport that prohibits bypassing college. People say that professional football is too brutal a sport for youngsters right out of high school to play. These people have a point. Tennis, golf, and soccer do not involve the level of physical pounding football does. Basketball is a tough, physical sport, but look at how many basketball players get hurt during a game compared to the number of football players who are injured. What if the football season was expanded to 82 games? You'd have no more football players! So, there is a point in the argument that young bodies are not ready for the hard hitting action of professional football.
Nevertheless, the Darwinian concept of survival of the fittest should be allowed to take effect. It will be evident that youngsters cannot take the brutality of professional football if every 18-year-old who tries to turn pro gets injured and fails. Basketball players like LeBron James show that players with early physical maturity and immense talent can skip college. Those basketball players who need more seasoning like former Cav Carlos Boozer can go to college to mature and then turn professional when they are ready. Football must adopt the same mindset. Let's see if these young football players can play in the NFL. Either they can or they can't. Either way the debate would be over.
I realize having football players turn pro would really hurt the talent in college football. I am a huge NCAA football fan and would hate to see the collegiate football talent become watered down like NCAA basketball due to early entries into the NBA. However, it is not fair to the players, many of whom are poor, to be prevented from making money off of their talents if they can when their school is making a monetary killing.
Think about it: Ohio State has seven to nine home games a year in a stadium which seats over 100,000 people. At an average of around 35 bucks a ticket, their profits are enormous, not to mention merchandise sales, television broadcast rights, among many other sources of income. Ohio State football grosses tens of millions of dollars annually, nearly all of which is profit because they do not have pay their players like professional teams do. The money generated from the football program is used to fund all of the other sports except basketball, which has its own income.
However, the college football players by law cannot make money from their playing. They receive a full scholarship and a meager weekly allowance for food and other expenses which amounts to very little. Sure, college football players live very well for undergraduate students, but they also generate a hell of a lot more income than your average college boy or girl does.
The school makes all of the profit, while the players make none. Many of the football players come from impoverished backgrounds and earning money as soon as possible is important to them. I am not saying that many young football players would be able to make the jump to the pros, but nevertheless, they must be given the chance to compete. Then, if they fail, they can thank their lucky stars for college, which gives them four more years to improve their abilities and a chance to play professionally. The only reason a young athlete is not in the NFL should be a lack of physical ability or maturity to compete, not the greed of NCAA sports programs.
