Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Bikers4Bush
"No one has a right to play in the NFL. No one."

Au contraire. If a team wishes to draft him (and all 30 would probably want him), and he is an adult (age-wise, clearly not head-wise in his case), he DOES have the right to be eligible for the draft. Keeping him out of the draft effectively denies him the right to play.

This kid is an unsavory character who has gotten and continues to get a lot of bad advice, but that doesn't change the fact that he has the physical tools to play in the NFL right now, and cannot be prevented from doing so. He would be, in theory, smarter to wait until he has another good year at OSU, assuming they would take him back in 2004, but OTOH he could also get seriously injured.

The NFL's best hope is to employ every legal stalling tactic ever invented, because they have NO case. Unless (and I doubt it), there is an age requirement in the NFLPA contract that is based on a lot of defensible studies of what might happen to 19 year-old running backs.
193 posted on 09/23/2003 1:25:38 PM PDT by litany_of_lies
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies ]


To: litany_of_lies
He has the right to be eligible for the draft once he's met the requirements and not a moment sooner.

If he can't meet the requirements it's his problem.
197 posted on 09/23/2003 1:33:21 PM PDT by Bikers4Bush
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 193 | View Replies ]

To: litany_of_lies
If any NFL team really WANTED him THAT bad...would he even have to sue??? Wouldn't the teams be pulling teeth to try to get the rules changed so that they could draft him?? It doesn't look like the owners are too thrilled to have him (or any young, unexperienced players) to me. You can argue that the NCAA is nothing but a "free" farm system for the owners, but, I believe that if the teams really wanted these guys out of high school, they could petition the NFL themselves to get the rules changed. They already go after college juniors as soon as they can, so wouldn't it also seem logical that if they wanted high school seniors they could "change" the rules to do so? I understand that that would (may?) cause changes to the CBA, but that happens all the time...and is that a change the players would object to? I don't know, but it would be interesting to see...I just wouldn't want to see another strike year out of it.
223 posted on 09/23/2003 5:10:58 PM PDT by dixierose (American by birth, Southern by the Grace of God)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 193 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson