For every LeBron James there are 100 Jonathon Benders. Sure, you’ve heard of Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett, but have you ever heard of DeSagna Diop or Kendrick Perkins? While the stream of high schoolers into the NBA doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon, the most popular of the four major sports – professional football – is in the middle of a battle that could make or break its future.
Just days before the 2004 NFL draft – set to begin Saturday in New York – the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a February district court ruling that would have allowed The Ohio State University running back Maurice Clarett to be selected this weekend, despite the fact that he has not been out of high school for three years, as an NFL rule stipulates.
Clarett, who dropped out of school last winter (after sitting out his sophomore season for accepting money from a friend and lying about it to investigators) is now scrambling for an answer and has filed an emergency appeal with the U. S. Supreme Court claiming that the league would not suffer from his presence, while he would suffer “substantial irreparable injury,” his lawyer wrote in his legal filing, according to the Associated Press.
The appeals court decision could turn out to be an 11th hour ruling that will save the NFL from the same fate as its basketball brethren. The district court’s stance that the three-year rule violates antitrust law is utterly absurd. The NFL is a private entity, and if another professional league wants to start up that allows high schoolers to play, there is nothing in the law that says it can’t. NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue has every right to make – and enforce – rules that he and the league’s 32 owners feel will improve the product on the field. A flood of unprepared high school athletes would not only dilute the professional game, but also deal a serious blow to college football, an institution with its own problems (spelled B.C.S.).
In the midst of bitter labor struggles and an almost-certain work stoppage (NHL), a heated debate over the use of steroids (Major League Baseball) and a fight to implement a minimum age for rookies (NBA), the NFL stands out as the best organized and most smoothly run of the major American sports. It is well within its rights, and in its right-mind, to keep 19- and 20-year-old kids out of the league to allow them to grow physically and mentally before being subjected to the professional sports world.
Should Ruth Bader Ginsburg – the Supreme Court justice in charge of the case – decide to uphold the appeals court decision, players like Clarett and University of Southern California’s Mike Williams, who hired an agent (thus waiving his remaining NCAA eligibility) and declared for the draft after the February ruling, will be left without a field to play on, something the NCAA should change by reinstating their eligibility in light of the unique circumstances.
Just as players like Clarett and Williams should not be penalized for hiring agents and declaring for the draft after a judge said they could, the NFL should not be forced to change a rule just because one player who ruined his own chance at a successful college career feels he is ready for the pros. The NBA’s babysitting problem is beyond repair, but if logical minds prevail, the NFL should be saved from the same fate.
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