I was flipping through the channels last night and briefly stopped on Fox Sports Southwest (ugh) and they had a tease that Oklahoma signee Adrian Peterson might jump to the NFL draft. I'm willing to guess that there's nothing to that tease and that Fox Sports Southwest is just blowing smoke...BUT... How delusional does a kid have to be in order to really think that they can go into the NFL from high school? The sad thing is that there are going to be a ton of kids signing with agents next year if this ruling is upheld. There are going to be kids who won't see the difference between lining up against a 190 lbs. lineman in high school and facing Michael Strahan or Kyle Turley or Brian Uhrlacher. We've already got two rounds worth of juniors declaring for the draft every year. I just don't understand how IGNORANT so many of these athletes are to the value of a college education. Even some of the ones who are in school (and have little or no shot at pro ball) are just taking random classes with no intent on working toward a degree. I remember taking classes one step above intro-level as a sophomore and seeing 5th year seniors in there. For what its worth, I think it's different for baseball and basketball players. Baseball takes years to develop and kids just get a headstart by jumping. In basketball, those who don't want to go to college and don't get drafted can still make a living playing in semi-pro and foreign leagues. There's no such viable thing for football (unless you count Arena league).
I agree with you completely, but the mentality is this: education, like so many other things, can be purchased later if you can just jump and get the money. Reality, of course, ultimately sets in and many of these kids wash out and return to earth with luxurious lifestyles they can't support and shrinking bank accounts.
It was a teaser. Adrian Peterson was quoted in The Dallas Morning News yesterday, saying that he wouldn't consider going to the NFL at this time.
This judge has just screwed kids everywhere... If a high school kid declares for the draft, signs with an agent and doesn't get drafted... There goes his chance at getting a scholarship to play football in college. How many NFL teams do you honestly think will draft a high school kid, or even a freshman/sophomore? They aren't going to waste the pick nor the money to sign someone who may or may not be worth it. This is going to get ugly fast.
I hear alot of pro teams are hiring scouts to hit the Pee Wee and Pop Warner leagues. I don't put too much stock into it. NFL teams know it takes time to develop players and they will not gamble on a HS player unless he is VERY exceptionable. I mean how many HS baseball or basketball players are actually successful right out the box in the pros? Few and far between.
Fellas...in a logical, capitalistic, pragmatic sense, you can't discriminate based on age in the realm of professional employment. You can't withhold a job from someone based on age alone...Unless it says so in the Constitution (like Presidents, which have to be over 35 years of age). From that sense, there should be no age limit... From the other side of the pragmatic viewpoint, there is no 18 year old in the world's history, outside of perhaps Jim Brown, Hector, and Achilles, who were physically ready at 18 for the NFL... NFL scouts know this... NFL scouts also know that Maurice Clarett hasn't made it through an entire collegiate football season without injury or missing games. They all know that trouble has followed him around, and that he benefitted from a team with superior concepts of team, a coach that brought back respect and hope, and a gritty defense to become something he's not. They all know about his character issues. They all know he admitted that a known, admitted gambler is a close friend, and that's a cardinal sin in professional sports. They all know his booster trouble, and his law trouble, and his health trouble, and his mental trouble, his maturity trouble, and his attitude trouble. They know all this...and don't even think Tagliabue and a few GM's haven't talked about "sending a message" to college kids who might think of doing this after Clarett and Fitzgerald... Watch him do a "Randy Moss/Fred Smoot" and go through a free fall...Everyone's talking about his potential...but Willis McGahee was a safer bet than Clarett is and will be. He's a renegade, an attitude, and a time bomb...
