Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 29, 1990 TAG: 9006290820
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
In a year in which, for the first time, the NFL permitted underclassmen to successfully enter the draft, Commissioner Paul Tagliabue is drawing the line.
Juniors only.
Jackson was a sophomore when he was selected in the NBA draft Wednesday, as were Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas, among others, before him.
But Tagliabue told the Knight Commission, studying the problems of college athletics, that the NFL is willing to go to court if sophomores or freshmen seek to turn pro early.
Tagliabue is opposed to a proposal by NCAA Executive Director Dick Schultz, who was on hand here Thursday, that would allow players to test the market in football as they have in hockey or baseball, and, if they discover their worth is insufficient, return to school.
"Some think an open draft would delete the agent problem," Schultz said.
Tagliabue, whose league benefits from the greatest free minor-league training program in existence, disagrees.
The NFL teams wouldn't like losing draft picks to players who could retain their college eligibility if they didn't sign.
"Our people feel several hundred [players would enter an open draft], and they feel that would be counterproductive," Tagliabue said.
No kidding.
However, the NFL is sensitive to college complaints that its pre-draft testing programs make it almost impossible for seniors to go to class in the spring.
"I recognize we do have redundant testing practices, overkill," Tagliabue said.
Then the zinger.
"Graduation rates are overwhelmingly determined by colleges themselves," he said.
Touche!
The college coaches should quit bleating. They don't have that many players being tested by the pros, most of them are fifth-year people anyway and, if they haven't graduated, they should be so close it doesn't matter.
Still, Tagliabue conceded no more than 43 percent of NFL players have their degrees, and, he said, "The players' association says the figure is closer to one-third."
For that miserable record, blame everybody. Sure, the pros test too much and make pests of themselves. Sure, they have a great deal: They don't have to pay a dime to a college trainee.
But it is the colleges who have admitted far too many athletes who have no business there, and for that the guilt can be shared by the administrators, the coaches and the boosters.
Tagliabue pointed out that the first 56 players in the draft will receive $110 million in contracts. For many, that's a reason for being a football player first and a student second.
"In the last 10-15 years, we've seen two classes of athletes," Tagliabue said. "The student-athletes, and the group who are just athletes, not really students."
To which former Heisman Trophy winner Dick Kazmeier, a commission member, responded, "Only 60 percent of those in the Hall of Fame have their degrees, so the problem isn't new."
For that, the NFL deserves no more than a peripheral slap.
Ironically, the NBA doesn't have any draft problems, although it had a hardship ruling in 1971 for Spencer Haywood and then, eliminating hypocrisy, called it "early-entry" in 1976.
In the past 15 years, 138 players have renounced their eligibility early, many of them ludicrously. Russ Granik, the NBA's deputy commissioner, said 95 have been drafted, 85 percent in the first two rounds. (The NBA only has two draft rounds now; it once had seven.)
For the most part, only blue-chippers apply in the NBA. If the NFL and the colleges could agree on a reasonable plan, the same thing would be true in football.
The NFL knows a good thing when it sees it, which is why it would accept a court fight it couldn't win. And the college coaches would get more sympathy if they recruited students only.
by CNB