Judge dropped the ball in Clarett's NFL challenge

Men can be and have been crippled playing professional football. As such, the National Football League should be able to say it doesn't want boys on the field.
Not so, says U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin, who essentially ordered the NFL to throw its draft open to high school students. She found an NFL rule that players shouldn't enter the draft until three years after high school "blatantly anti-competitive" and "precisely the sort of conduct that the antitrust laws were designed to prevent."
The challenge to the NFL rule was brought by Maurice Clarett, a Youngstown native who played his high school football at Warren Harding and one year of college ball at Ohio State University.
There's a legal adage that bad cases make bad law. In Clarett's case, it's too bad he felt compelled to seek an early entry into the NFL.
Two years ago, Clarett had the world on a string. He had been recruited by a potential national champion college football team, Ohio State. Had he put in just three years at OSU and proved each of those years that he was capable of growing as a player and as a person, he would have had a lock on a Heisman Trophy (maybe two) and a first-round pick in the NFL draft.
Success and controversy
Instead, after a stellar freshman year, which included his scoring the touchdown that gave OSU the national championship, Clarett took his eye off the ball. In the past 13 months, he hasn't played in a college football game, but has made plenty of headlines as a subject of controversy.
Clarett at 20 has his whole adult life ahead of him, and because of his obvious talent as a football player he has far more potential for success than most people his age. But thus far he has made bad decisions and has, it would appear, been given bad advice. That's a pattern he's going to have to break -- whether he were to choose to play another year of college football or to enter the NFL draft.
In the meantime, the NFL will pursue an appeal of Judge Scheindlin's ruling. As a society, we strive to protect our young people. We don't let them drive until they are 16 (for their protection and that of pedestrians and other motorists); we don't let them drink alcohol or buy cigarettes until a certain age; we have child labor laws -- the list goes on and on.
If the NFL wants to set some minimum standards for entry into its league, it should be able to do so for the protection of its players and its business interests. The league has been sued by veteran players (or by their heirs) for failure to protect them against injury.
If Judge Scheindlin prevails, how long will it be before some 18-year-old boy gets injured or killed and the team that drafted him and the NFL is sued for not being able to see that it wasn't in his best interest to be a boy among men on the football field?