The sports world is full of young athletes who would rather pursue a professional athletic career than go to college. Nobody worries much about the priceless educational opportunities missed by tennis star Serena Williams, figure skating immortal Michelle Kwan, or Florida Marlins pitching ace Josh Beckett. Even in basketball, few gripes are heard about players such as LeBron James and Kevin Garnett, who went straight from high school to the National Basketball Association without detouring to spend a few years in university classrooms.
But Maurice Clarett, a standout running back on Ohio State’s 2002 national championship football team, faced powerful resistance when he decided he’d rather be pulling down a fat paycheck than reading textbooks in family resource management, his major at OSU.
For decades, the league has tried to keep college players in college. The NFL rule bars players from entering the annual draft until three years after they finish high school–thus shutting out the 20-year-old Clarett, who graduated high school in December 2001. After being suspended by the Buckeyes last season for misconduct, he filed a lawsuit challenging the NFL ban as a violation of federal antitrust laws.
It was no great surprise when a U.S. district court agreed with Clarett last week and ordered the league to let him enter the upcoming draft. Courts have generally taken a dim view of professional league policies that prevent players from selling their services wherever they choose. In this case, Judge Shira Scheindlin said the ban violates laws intended to ensure free economic competition.
“The rule is a naked restraint on competition for player services because it excludes a class of players from entering the market,” she wrote. “It harms competition because some players are simply not permitted to compete.”
The NFL justifies the ban as a favor to young athletes, who are allegedly protected from the dangers of competing at an age when they are not physically or emotionally mature enough to withstand the rigors of the pro game. Most college-age players, it’s true, are not ready to play against adult men who are the best in the world–but most of them would never be drafted or signed. The rule affects only athletes who are, in the judgment of NFL coaches, capable of holding their own.
Clarett is one of those. By denying him the chance to play professionally in the most lucrative league available, the rule might deprive him of millions of dollars in income. And that income won’t necessarily be available later: Every athlete knows his career could end any day.
College football fans may resent the decision, but the sport hasn’t suffered great harm as players like Michael Vick and Rex Grossman have forgone some of their NCAA eligibility to play on Sundays. In practical terms, the effect is likely to be small, because very few 19- and 20-year-old collegians–much less 18-year-olds just out of high school–have developed sufficiently to play in the NFL.
Clarett and other college stars might be better off staying in school. But that’s a decision for them to make.
