Sunday, September 21, 2003
Anything that threatens the stability of college football could be damaging to the NFL.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
WASHINGTON -- NFL Players Association executive director Gene Upshaw said Wednesday that he agrees with team owners and league executives who say suspended Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett should not be eligible for the 2004 draft.
"I don't think he should be playing in the NFL, not yet," Upshaw said during a break from a one-day league meeting. "I think he should stay in school. He needs to get his education. I think that's more important than this. This will be here."
Meeting set
Jeff Pash, the league's top attorney, plans to meet with Clarett's attorney, Alan C. Milstein, next week.
Upshaw said he has not had any contact with Clarett's representatives, and the players' union will not be involved in next week's meeting.
Anything that threatens the stability of college football could be damaging to the NFL, given that the college ranks provide the league with a free farm system not to mention a billion-dollar publicity machine that makes rookies famous before they have played a down in the pros.
"You start making exceptions, and everything comes apart," said Ralph Wilson, owner of the Buffalo Bills. "Pretty soon, we'll be taking them out of grade school."
USC Coach Pete Carroll, former coach of the New York Jets, said it would be a "terrible idea" for Clarett to enter the league after only one season of college football, three games of which he missed because of injuries.
"I don't think it would be fun at all for the kid," Carroll said. "I think it would be nasty. ... The emotional side of it would catch up."
Old system
It used to be that players had to be four years out of high school before they could enter the draft, and the league made exceptions on a case-by-case basis. Tagliabue instituted the current three-year policy shortly after becoming commissioner in 1990, and the league has never been challenged on the issue in court.
Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney said he would prefer the league increase its requirement to four years out of high school.
"Kids should stay in school for four years," he said. "It's the best thing for them. We'd live with it. It's the best thing for the colleges. It's been a workable thing for 70 years. I think that they really miss something coming out of school.
"You can take it from the situation that you come out early, you get cut, you never get a chance. It's great to mention Tommy Maddox [who left UCLA after his third year of college] and those kind of guys. But there's not a whole lot of them."
Upshaw, a Hall of Fame offensive lineman with the Oakland Raiders, said: "I would have loved to play against a guy who was 18. I probably could have whipped him."
Made own bed
Clarett might have an easier time making his case to a judge and jury, had he not broken NCAA rules, violations that led to his suspension, said Gary Roberts, a professor at Tulane Law School and an antitrust specialist.
"I don't think he's got a strong case," Roberts said. "He could win, but he's got a couple of big hurdles. He goes in as a relatively unsympathetic plaintiff. ... This is someone who's made his own bed."