High Schoolers to enter draft

Does it cost $ to enter the draft. Maybe I'll enter just to get my name on espn.com

..... I wish that all of the owners would come to an agreement and blacklist this cancer in the draft.
I just really can't stand this guy Clarett. He has yet to prove much to me even in the college ranks.... let alone in the NFL. He showed the propensity to get injured and not play through minor injuries in major games. His lack of heart and dedication is laughable.

A cancer???? You guys are going overboard with this. This is not the end of the world. We do live America, right? You plan to deny a sector of our ADULT population the ability to work in the NFL because they are not old enough and might get hurt, but at the same time they are old enough to go to war and get killed? College football fans are the only one's upset with this ruling.
College students everywhere have the ability to drop out of college or decide not to go at all, in order to try out and become a member of the work force. They also have the ability to later come back to college if they want. Why can't a college football player do the same?
It seems to me the problem is with the terrible NCAA college football rules, that says if a player is drafted they lose all their college eligibility. The NCAA is a money hungry institution that hides behind the amateur sports status. The NCAA and University's can make million of dollars off the backs of players but if the player so much as gets a ride to a class, he gets suspended.
Regarding Clarett, he might be misguided, but he will be a star. I went to the Horseshoe or watched on TV every Ohio State game the year they won the NCAA Championship. Clarett played with a separated shoulder for a good part of the year. But he still lead his team in rushing on a team that could not pass and won the Championship. That very same team without Clarett the next year did not do as well.

We do live America, right? You plan to deny a sector of our ADULT population the ability to work in the NFL because they are not old enough and might get hurt, but at the same time they are old enough to go to war and get killed? College students everywhere have the ability to drop out of college or decide not to go at all, in order to try out and become a member of the work force. They also have the ability to later come back to college if they want. Why can't a college football player do the same?

The difference is that while any college student can drop out of college to seek work, they cannot go to court and sue to get into a position the employer feels they are not qualified for. It is, after all, the employers decision whether or not they hire the applicant. In all cases, employers have certain rules applicants must follow in order to qualify for entry. Clarett sought a court order to demand the NFL abandon its eligibility rules. If that's the precedent we're trying to establish, why don't we all seek a court order to force our local newspapers to offer us a position as a commentary writer on the Sports page for the Redskins?

Beemns, That might be the best point i have heard out of ANYONE, reporter, friend , journalist. Thats makes alot of sense, and next time I get in a argument with my friends, maybe i'll steal that one lol.

So an emloyer can set up a job qualification like all employees must white and deny all minority's the job? I am not a laywer (so i might be wrong) but I think there are laws that say employers can not discriminate because of race, religion and age. There are child protection laws that prevent the hiring of someone under a certain age (14?).
If you are old enough to be drafted by our goverment to go to war and die, you are old enough to work in any field.
Correct me if am wrong, but aren't there brilliant minds in our country that accelerate their education and graduate from college and somtimes medical or law school way before thier time. Do we deny them the ability to work?

I could not agree more, Beemnseven. I have argued those exact same points with Daseal before. His opinion will not be changed, no matter how precise and logical our arguments are.

Define "we". "WE" the fans? The fans don't have a say one way or the other. The NFL decides who gets to play in their league and who doesn't. Clarett should no more be able to demand to play in the NFL than you or I.
Change that to they, I think you're bright enough to figure out I meant we as a nation. We as football people of all sorts. More specifically the NFL.

So what? I'm trying to make a living too! That doesn't entitle me to seek a court order demanding that I get into a doctor's office to start practicing medicine because, "I'm trying to make a living!"

Ok, let's use my analogy this time! You're going to college, a firm comes out and offers you 100K a year if you join now, however if you stay in college you'll only get 60K a year when you get out no matter where you go. I think that you can do the math here and figure out what you'll be doing. Money is a huge part of football, no one can deny that. Clarett isn't exactly a Field Hockey Player trying to make the transition into football, he's been a football player since he can remember. You haven't been training to be a doctor since you can remember.


Fine. He may be an amazing talent. But I disagree with your premise that he "carried his team to a national championship". Football is the ultimate team sport. No one player singlehandedly leads any team anywhere without the cooperation, talent, and motivation of other members of the team.

Individual talent is not to be ignored. Don't let all the media hype fool you, unless you have players you can't do anything. Think the Patriots would have made it to the SuperBowl without Ty Law? Brueski, Brady? Answer: NO. Stars are needed. Barry Sanders never had shit around him and he still made the Lions orginization a lot better by himself. Had Barry had any sort of line or even a longer career in that shithole he would own every RB record known to man. Clarett didn't win by himself, but he was the key reason they did so well, they fed it to him and threw easy short passes. Clarett made that team.

The NFL is a private organization, Daseal. No one should be able to sue a private organization to demand entry. Let me ask you this: Can I seek an injunction to enter your home, despite your contention that your house is private property and you have the right to let in whomever you want? According to your logic, I can. I have every right to walk into your house by the order of a court simply based upon my opinion that I "deserve" to be there. And not you, or anyone else can stop me.

If you get a court order to live in my house, I am forced by law to abide, you'd never get one because it's an unreasonable request, but it could happen. If you and the judge agree that you "deserve" to be there then you most likely will be there. You're forgetting a key aspect of the Clarett case. THEY HAD TO GO THROUGH THE LEGAL PROCESS which you seem to be completely skipping in your analogies. Also, you can demand entry into the NFL. They are a private orginization, this means abosolutly nothing. Golf Courses that are male only still have to hire females that are qualified due to equal oppurtunity employment. They can let females not play because they would have to be paying members which they can neglect services to, however they can NOT keep females from working there. Just like the NFL can't keep legal adults out, unless the FCC says Football below age 21 is hazardous to your health, which is absurd.

And it's a ruling by a judge who admitted that she had never seen more than one half of a football game in her entire life.
That's good, she doesn't have any sort of bias which is what we want in the court room. Someone who doesn't give a rats ass either way as far as this ruling goes she saw a kid trying to play but being kept out from laws that are ILLEGAL. Understand that, the NFL rules violate US law.

Defensewins: I agree with you, but remember, no age group gets bullied around like the 16-21 age group. We have no political power because we can't run, no political pull because we're poor and no real impact on elections since we have a poor turnout. However if someone steps up and organizes this age demographic some people could be in deep shit. We're also the age group that spends frivilously. Look at the laws, you can't do shit till you're 21. You have to take all the responsibility of an adult without any of lifes simple pleasres. Drinking, Gambling, etc. Of course I can enter into a legally binding contract but I can't have a glass of wine at dinner. Hell, I can't even buy cooking wine... which granted I personally wouldn't use... but hey!

The difference is that while any college student can drop out of college to seek work, they cannot go to court and sue to get into a position the employer feels they are not qualified for. It is, after all, the employers decision whether or not they hire the applicant.
Who feels Clarett isn't qualified for the NFL? Very few people don't think he can play in this league, most people are upset because their beloved college teams can no longer just exploit these guys for cash. It's also the employeers decesion to pick up players or not. The NFL doesn't sign the checks, the team does. Teams don't HAVE to draft Clarett, teams don't HAVE to pick him up as an Undrafted agent. However he is talented, so they will. And you can sue for positions if you feel you were unfairly discriminated against. Just like those multiple lawsuits against colleges because a white student who was a better student was kept out because of affirmative action. Same with jobs, people sue if they feel they didn't get it because of some kind of descrimination (age, gender, race, etc)

DefenseWins, you're absolutly right. It's called Equal Oppurtunity Employment. Very few places are exempt from it. I mean, no one wants to see a man modeling lingerie. The NFL shouldn't be, yes this means the doors could open to women, but they better get ready to get the shit hit out of them, because you can't let someone score or catch because they're female.

Can the NFLPA disallow underclassmen from joing their association? If so and they do (which is very unlikely), then that would correspond to your country club analogy. Just because the club (NFL) must hire you doesn't mean that you automatically get all the perks of the club (ie no NFLPA support).

It depends on the NFLPA's rules. If it has a certain age limit then yes, if it says the requirements are all NFL players, then no, they can't. They can keep them out of the association, but not the league.

I knew it depended on their rules, thats why I asked if anyone knew.
Disallowing underclassmen from joining the NFLPA would go a long way to keeping them out of the NFL. The NFLPA might go for this as underclassmen would take jobs of older, more experienced veterans (more costly).