Chron: No merit in NFL's stance
John Walsh
still have a chance to declare themselves eligible for the NFL Draft. To
the best of anyone's knowledge, USC's Mike Williams still has no regrets
about leaving early. Maurice Clarett still has love handles.
And the NFL still has no case.
Never mind what Commissioner Paul Tagliabue says. Never mind what the
league's latest appeal says, although what it does say will crack you
up. And never mind what another learned lawyer/commissioner, the NBA's
David Stern, says. Those entities all will tell you that the decision
that opened the door for the cuddly Clarett, as well as Williams, was
legally flawed and that it will be picked apart in the higher courts.
They also will tell you that letting players such as Clarett and
Williams into the pros only two years after their high-school graduation
would ruin them, their sports, the educational system, the natural order
of the universe and our democratic way of life.
In an unguarded moment, they also might allow that it does their
league's bottom line a bit of damage, but that might come off as a
little less altruistic.
Better to say, as the NFL did in its latest appeal filed Friday, that
letting "adolescents'' be eligible for the draft would put those
youngsters' health and educational futures at risk and bring
"potentially tragic consequences for both themselves and society.''
Or, as Stern said two weeks ago in Los Angeles during All-Star Weekend,
that "the influence that that's going to have prospectively on
youngsters on what they do with their lives and what they aim for is
going to be profound because ... a youngster who thinks he's coming to
the NBA is, as Arthur Ashe pointed out, much more likely to be a rocket
scientist or a brain surgeon than an NBA player.''
Oooh, cheap shot, invoking Arthur Ashe. In other words, if you disagree
with letting teenagers into the NBA or NFL, you're opposing one of the
great sportsmen and humanitarians of our time.
Then again, having Ashe as your standard-bearer plays better in the
public eye than having Clarett. Pioneering clearly is harder than it
looks. Good job taking the first big step, good job selling it to the
courts -- but bad job making a first impression. Someone in Clarett's
inner circle should have pointed out: The NFL doesn't want you there and
it will jump on any flaw with a vengeance to bolster its case.
You're breaking a mold the game doesn't want you breaking, he should
have been told. Don't arrive at the scouting combine looking as if you
just came out of a jello mold. Jackie Robinson didn't show up drunk on
the first day of spring training in 1947, did he?
In the grand scheme of things, though, Clarett's unnecessary jiggle
shouldn't matter. Speaking of the grand scheme, Stern (or Ashe) isn't
wrong. At least, not as wrong, or obnoxious or two-faced, as his NFL
counterpart. In fact, Stern has more of a legal and moral ground on
which to stand: His sport spent time, effort and money on a
developmental league, embryonic as it is.
The age limit Stern continues to push might be, as union head Billy
Hunter has said, like "putting the genie back in the bottle.'' Still,
it's a lot easier to swallow with an option available to bridge the gap
from college to the big leagues. The NFL remains content to use the
colleges as its minor league and to tout the educational benefits of
spending at least three years entertaining strippers, hiding firearms
and enrolling in nonexistent classes - - er, maturing into young adults.
Meanwhile, as the NFL's deadline to expand this year's draft pool
approaches today, neither college rosters nor high-school classrooms are
emptying in a mad rush to the NFL. The departure of Williams -- from the
national champs into the top five of the draft, no less -- doesn't even
qualify as a trickle, much less a deluge.
It hasn't happened in the NBA, either; it only seems that way, because
each high-schooler who bolts gets attention far beyond any collegian --
and, as was the case last year with LeBron James, deservedly so. More
than a few of them have washed out, of course. Yet no proof has been
produced by anyone that they have washed out, in the game or in life,
more frequently than those who spent even four years in college.
What is true is that the NCAA still doesn't allow players who try to go
pro out of high school to come back to college ball if they are not
signed. Really advances the cause of education, doesn't it?
"Ludicrous,'' Hunter calls that rule.
Judges without a rooting interest in how their team does in the fall or
winter likely will take note of all this; at least two already have. The
sooner the NFL accepts its fate and adjusts accordingly, the sooner it
can get to more important matters.
Such as seeing whether Clarett's gut crosses the finish line in the 40
before the rest of him does.
E-mail David Steele at dst...@sfchronicle.com.