NCAA News - Covering NCAA Sports

Clarett Wins
By: Keith Dobkowski, NCAA News Writer
February 6, 2004

On Thursday February 5, 2004, a Federal Judge found the
National Football Leagues’ policy of denying entry to the league
until a player is three years removed from high school to be a
violation of federal antitrust laws. Maurice Clarett, the standout
running back on The Ohio States University’s National
Championship winning team two seasons ago as a freshman,
brought suit. Clarett, who had multiple NCAA violations during his
lone season at OSU thus causing Clarett to be benched for his
entire second year of college, claimed that the NFL’s rule limiting
draft eligibility to players three years out of high school was a
violation of his rights. Clarett argued that there is no other
league in the world for professional football like the NFL. The
Arena Football League, Canadian Football League and NFL
Europe do not offer the athletic competition or money of the NFL
and therefore do not offer direct competition to the NFL.

Since the NFL is the lone league of it kind, Clarett claimed that his
right to work and earn a living playing football was violated by
the NFL’s three years out of high school rule. Simply put, the
antitrust violation was the NFL’s failure to allow players into the
league to earn a living playing football until they were three years
removed from high school.

The NFL countered by stating that the three-year rule is not
subject to antitrust laws for it was agreed upon between the NFL
and NFL Player’s Association in the Collective Bargaining
Agreement of 1993. Further the NFL argued that Clarett does not
have standing because he was not a party to the Collective
Bargaining Agreement.

So what does this all mean? For Clarett? The NFL? High School
Athletes? And how come other American Sports have flourished
with high schoolers directly entering the professional ranks?

If Clarett decides to enter this year’s draft, most experts have
predicted that he will be drafted at earliest in the second round.
While Clarett has the size and speed to play in the NFL, as well
as the pedigree coming from The Ohio State University as the
starting running back during their National Championship Season,
Clarett only has one year of playing college ball. Clarett has a
history of injuries. And scariest, Clarett will have a big target on
his back if and when he plays in the NFL. Lavar Arrington said as
much as the 2004 pro bowl. “If he can make it that rookie year
without being assassinated, I think he’ll be all right,” stated
Arrington.

How many others will see Clarett as a boy entering a man’s
game. Will Ray Lewis or Julian Peterson hit Clarett just that much
harder to say welcome or possibly goodbye? You would believe
so cause if Clarett takes that hit and pops up or even runs over
the best the NFL has to offer, high school kids will be sure to
follow Clarett’s path. Not only do the likes of Lewis and others
want to show that this is a man’s game, but they have financial
incentive to do so. An influx of young players and therefore
cheaper players will drive the older players from the game,
especially in the NFL’s hard salary cap era.

The NFL is in the process of appealing this decision. Regardless
on the outcome, Clarett should not be affected at all and may
become the first and last one-year and out player drafted. The
NFL claims that an agreement on when player becomes eligible
for the league was reached between the NFL and NFL players’
association and therefore Federal Antitrust laws would not apply.

Here, I would urge the NFL to not only increase their arguments,
but to increase the years needed to enter the professional
leagues. Mandate a bachelor’s degree for the sake of the
league. My own research has shown a link between
underclassmen entering the NBA and an increased rate of crime
over those who stay all four years. The numbers roughly state
that underclassmen leaving before their junior year are arrested
at nearly a 50% clip, while graduates were arrested at just above
10%. The NFL is in the business of promoting its league and a
league full of felons does not sell.

Further, United States law supports different rules for different
age brackets. Under constitutional scrutiny, only a rational basis
between the objective and the result is necessary in order to
discriminate on the basis of age. Here, Clarett has essentially
claimed that age discrimination in the form of Antitrust Violations
have prohibited Clarett from joining the NFL. If the NFL could
substantiate that the reason for their action is not for the
protection of current players, but rather for the duel protection of
the college educational system and stopping the criminal actions
of early entrants, the NFL should be able to convince a court that
its actions are constitutional.

In the case that Clarett’s suit is upheld the net results in the NFL
will not be major. Few high school and first year college players
have the strength, speed, size and ability to compete in the NFL.
Most experts and columnist point to one player during the past
30 years who actually had the speed, size and athletic ability to
forgo college and enter the NFL. He is the one and only Hershel
Walker.

Both Major League Baseball and the National Basketball
Association allows players to go directly from high school into the
pros. The NBA has had mixed results. Lebron James is the first
high schooler to average 20 points a game and one of only three
have ever averaged more than 10 points a game in their first
year. Jermaine O’Neal took five years to settle into stardom and
both Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady spent years on the bench
learning their craft. Lebron may be the Hershel Walker of the
NBA. Most high schoolers enter the draft as toothpicks needing
years of proper diet, workouts and aging to fill out their slender
bodies. Lebron, like Hershel, is a man-child. Therefore, Lebron
appears to be the exception and not the rule.

MLB has not had a player go from high school in the league since
the 1970’s. All three were pitchers and only one, Mike Morgan,
had a long career. Can’t miss prospects like Drew Henson miss
all the time. This does not mean that the NBA is a sub-par league
in comparison to MLB and the NFL, but rather the differences in
the sports business models allows the NBA to move in a different
direction than both MLB and the NFL. The NFL does not offer
guaranteed money or contracts and therefore a win now
approach is more apparent. And MLB has a substantial minor
league system that most players participate in for years before
being offered major league money and guaranteed contracts.
The NBA offers guaranteed money to first round draft picks for a
minimum of three years. This allows players the needed time to
develop and grow into their bodies. Further the NBA will continue
to sing its old mantra, “you can’t teach height.” Which is
substantially different than size.

Maurice Clarett has changed his life, but he will not significantly
change the NFL. A few high school athletes may take bad advice
and make terrible decisions declaring for the draft only to
shunned and have their college eligibility destroyed. However,
these players will be few and the system as it stood ten days
ago, will continue to thrive in nearly the exact same manner.