NBA will take kids right out of HS..or the very common one-and done..whereas the NFL only allows them to be drafted after 3 years of college eligibility have passed. Obviously there’s a discrepancy here, which will end up in court. The NFL doesn’t want to upset the colleges, which provide them with a free farm system.I don’t know how it all ends up. The NBA has the “D” league..maybe the NFL should purchase Arena football, of forget the dumb idea of a team in Europe, and put a “D” league in several European cities. Also, the O’Bannon case hangs over all of this..
its not 3 years of passed college eligibility its three years removed from high school- better known as the Larry Fitzgerald rule....
i’m in the NFL Draft business and can tell you the academically ineligible case won’t pass and won’t do a damn thing...there was an encyclopedia of damaging information available to teams on Hernandez when he entered the draft; most had to do with his habitual use of marijuana and the attitude of he and his family towards the chronic use...this went back to the days he was being recruited by Urban Meyer to Florida- i laughed when Meyer made his “don’t blame me” statement...
the “im invincible, i can get away with anything, they know i’m a chronic weed smoker and can’t do a damn thing about it” has much more to do than any academic issue...
They already tried a D league in Europe, that’s what NFL Europe was, it failed, Europe wasn’t interested in minor league football. And technically the NFL draft delay has nothing to do with college, the players simply have to be out of high school for 3 years, could be in college, could be in semi-pro, could be working at the grocery store, just so long as they graduated high school 3 years ago. The NBA borrowed the idea when they added the one year rule, but in typical NBA fashion they didn’t understand what the rule is about (not making teenagers millionaires, and letting them some of that very important late growth that strengthens bones and overall durability) and failed to do it right. And the NFL has been to court about it, Maurice Clarett sued them over it and lost, then he started getting in trouble with the law and proved the rule a good idea.
This isn’t a bad idea. Too many kids tank their classes when they want to get drafted, instead focusing on their work outs to prepare for the combine. It’s best not to reward them, not sure it’ll really help anything, and it certainly won’t stop the Hernandez’s, but it takes a stand. They should also take a stand on coaches that get in trouble in the NCAA, it’s a sad thing to have multiple coaches “serving” NCAA suspensions by getting paid even more in the NFL.