Not sure by any means, just my gut feeling. I'm pretty that the players (if any) that declare for this year will get into the league. The draft is in two months and that is likely not enough time for the NFL to win an appeal. Somebody with greater knowledge about the legal system could better answer that though. One thing I am sure about is that if the players get into the draft they will be treated fairly by the GMs. All those guys care about is getting the best players for their team, not about making a philosophical stand on early players entering the league. If the NFL can get an antitrust exemption like baseball they will be free to keep the current rule in place.
I think the NFL should have "requirements" to fill the job(position) like any other employer, if you want to be a entry level QB you need a HS diploma, + X years of college or X years of QB experience to be eligible for the position. If the NFL is required to take HS grads, then any 18 YO with a diploma should be able to be a CEO of a major corp. jm2c
They can be. Theres no law that says they can't, but the private companies choose not to hire them. Just because the 18 year olds are allowed to be in the league doesnt meant he private companies (teams) will hire them.
The NFL should be able to request and obtain a stay of the trial judge's ruling pending the appeal. This would freeze the ruling until the appeal has been decided. You have a trial judge here who is a liberal Clinton appointee who did not even receive any evidence on the factual issues but effectively made lots of factual findings in her ruling despite the fact that she does not know $hit from green grapefruit about football. She ignored case precedents in which antitrust laws were held to be inapplicable to sports leagues with collective bargaining agreements with their players (as the NFL does). The NFL has a good chance to get a stay and win the appeal. If anybody thinks that there are not legal and practical barriers to entry into LOTS of jobs, think again. Unions have rules that prevent people from becoming union members except under certain conditions, and states have licensing requirements on many occupations that effectively prevent younger persons from entering those occupations (try making it through med school by age 18). What is sad is that during the confusion created by this ruling, some players who have no business in the NFL may contact agents and become ineligble for NCAA football, and they may also be ineligible for the NFL as well. That would effectively eliminate all of their football playing options.
That last paragraph was a great point. If this passes, I feel bad for all these kids who are going to blow their shot at an education that they could not get without football. Going in the middle and late rounds+getting cut+no education = arena football.
sugarlsu is right, Arena is the only league that will make out like bandits here. What GM is going to draft a freshman running back who hasn't had the time to improve himself or develop his body? What GM is going to draft an untested QB? And no GM in the NFL will ever draft a HS lineman, or any lineman than hasn't had atleast 3 years of training. Plain and simple, the NFL is a different game. HS kids and early entries might be able to make it in the NBA but the NFL is much more physical. I don't think college football will suffer from this, however plenty of kids will when they pass up college or leave early because of some bad advice.
Any 18 year old with a HS diploma is technically eligible to become the CEO of any corporation that would hire them. Of course it is unlikely that any of them would actually be hire for such a position but there is no law preventing it. The NFL teams do have "job requirements" already. Those job requirements depend on the assessments of highly paid people who make draft recommendations based on the level of skill a player has demonstrated to be able to compete at the position he plays. There are no "X years of QB experience" requirements to be an NFL starting QB. If a player is good enough he will start and if he is not he will ride the bench or be released. Dan Marino and John Elway became starters and stars in their rookie years despite having no "X years of experience." I can see the possibility of a very few running backs or wide receivers actually making an NFL roster right out of high school but they will be few and far between. I can't see that a linebacker, O or D lineman or a defensive back would have any shot at all of being drafted right out of high school. Herschel Walker was probably skilled enough and physically mature enough to have played in the NFL right out of HS. There are probably a very few others but I can't think of any. Peyton Manning probably had the mental maturity and knowledge of the game to skip college but he didn't have the physical maturity to do it at the age of 18. While the court ruling in favor or Clarett is a bad decision for both pro and college football it follows the constitution by allowing anybody who thinks he can sell his talents at the next level to pursure gainful employment. It is the right decision from a legal and constitutional standpoint. I only hope that the NCAA will come off their high horse and reinstate the college eligiblity of the young players who make a bad decision and don't get drafted. The vast majority of high school and early college age students have no marketable skills to gain them employment at anything other than flipping burgers or menial labor but at least in my personal knowledge there are a few young computer geeks whose skills earned them a great income even as young as the age of 15. I know of at least one person who began writing software at the age of 15 and recently sold his company for several million dollars. He is now 20 and he never finished high school and never went to college. He was able to accomplish this because this is America and there were no laws preventing him from doing it. Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard in his sophomore year and he is now the richest man in the world. Maybe if there had been a law preventing him from starting his business until he had at least completed 3 years of college eligibilty somebody else would have beat him to the punch and we would all be using an operating system that never crashes instead of Windows. :cuss:
In practically any field, employers can require a certain amount of experience as a prerequisite for a job position. Why should professional football be any different? These are high paying jobs that require very definite skills. Despite what judge $hithead said in her ruling, there is every reason for a prospective NFL player to have 1) fully matured physically and 2) significant playing experience in competitive football. Saying otherwise is like saying that a master welder need not have ever used welding tools.
While there is no law preventing this there also is no law preventing a corporation from requiring a certain amount of experience, talent, college degree, etc. The NFL should have every right to decide what qualifications are required in order to he hired. All major corporations also have profeesionals in place whose job is to assess the applicants and deem if they are qualified for a postion but the Corporations still have rules that disallow that person from being hired.
