Clarett benefits from a bad call in courtroom

By By Stan Torgerson / sports writer
Feb. 9, 2004
When U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that Ohio State sophomore running back Maurice Clarett was eligible to be drafted by the NFL, regardless of their entry rule that said a kid couldn't be drafted until he'd been out of high school at least three years, I was asked numerous times for an opinion. Let me give it to you here.
I think the decision stinks.
Don't press me with that old cliche. "Come on Stan, tell us what you really think."
That's what I really think.
Judge Scheindlin's decision may make legal sense, although another court is going to have to agree that it does, but it makes no common sense at all.
It's not that he, or any other young player will likely get hurt. Even broken bones heal. It's that for the vast vast majority of kids who decide to take advantage of her opinion, it will ruin their life.
There are about 9,000 kids playing football in Division I. Darn near all of them dream at night about a career in pro football. Assuming that 20 percent graduate or leave school every year, that's near 1,800. The pros will draft about 360, give or take. Simple arithmetic tells you that 1,400 or 1,500 will never see that dream realized.
But that's not what many of them hear. A friend, a fellow player, but most of all an agent will blow smoke into their ear and too many of them believe it.
It's a "sign with me kid and I'll make you rich" world out there. The agent tells the kid he knows for certain that you're good enough, that some team needs someone just like you or that this is the year in which everyone is looking for defensive linemen or wide receivers or whatever position this kid plays.
The vast majority of the the time it simply isn't true. The pros don''t give two hoots in hades about a kid's newspaper or TV reputation. They run a meat market and only Grade A prime gets purchased.
Let's look at a couple of examples. In 1998 Ole Miss tight end Rufus French made All American teams selected by AP, Coaches, Camp, Football News, Sporting News, C&P, AAFB, BCS, AFQ and CSN. He was the greatest thing since sliced bread he was told. Can't miss. It's not a question of who or how high, only just how much will the NFL be willing to pay for your services.
So French listened to the siren song and turned pro after his junior and multi All-American year.
Well suprise, surprise. No one drafted Rufus French. No one. He was All-American in college. All nothing to the pros.
He finally managed to catch on as a free agent with Seattle. Played very little if at all. Hung around for two years and after the 2000 season he was gone, never to return.
Now think if he had returned to Ole Miss in 1999, worked on his skills, his strength, his knowledge of how to play the position. Would he have been drafted in 2000. I don't have a doubt. Would he have been drafted high enough to get some of the big money that puts an NFL team in the position where they have an investment in the kid and as a result they have to give him every chance in the world to make good? I have no doubt about that either.
But football isn't the only sport that deals in dreams. Basketball is equally bad maybe worse. Let's look at the case of Mississippi State's Mario Austin. He made only the Fox.com All-American fifth team but that was enough to convince him, with some help, that pro basketball was his future this year rather than another year in the SEC. Chicago drafted him 36th. Thirty-sixth is in the second round and there are no guaranteed contracts in the second round.
Austin didn't make it. He signed a contract to play basketball in Russia and that didn't work out either. Today he is in the gym virtually every day, trying to develop skills that some NBA team will buy. Would he likely have been a first round choice had he stayed at State and played with the outstanding group at MSU this year? You bet your sweet bippee he would and next year it is likely he would have had that first round ticket to fame and fortune. Today he's a gym rat trying to find a way to get someone to see NBA potential in his skills.
Football is a physical game and I simply don't believe that a 18, 19 or 20 year old boy entering the NFL is physically able to play against the Ray Lewises or Julian Peppers or Warren Sapps or other 28, 30 or 32 year old men that he will meet Sunday after Sunday after Sunday.
Where does a rejected 18 year old high school player turn when the NFL says you are not ready or able to play in this league? He goes back home and gets a job with Wal-Mart with no money, no college degree and no future.
That's why I think professional sports has some responsibility to protect these young people against the unscrupulous. The rule that did not allow players to be drafted into the NFL until they were out of high school at least three years is a good and reasonable one. By that time they will be physically matured, wise enough in the ways of the game to understand the challenges ahead and have at the very least a fighting chance for success. It's bad enough to see them leaving after their junior years. Ask the Manning boys if staying on through their senior seasons was a wise decision.
As for me, I'd like to see the NCAA go back to the days when freshman weren't eligible and a young man or young lady was given a fair chance to adjust to his campus life and the demands of athletics. That is not likely to happen. But the redshirt year is at least a solution to the problem. Now there is no solution. While an agent is whispering in one 18-year-old ear a federal judge is whispering in the other. And I think both of them are wrong.