September 26, 2003
Possible Flaw In The NFL's Anti-Clarett Strategy
The heart of the NFL legal argument against ex-Ohio State runningback Maurice Clarett rests on a portion of the collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Players Association that prohibits a player from entering the draft until three years after his high school class graduated. But as Dave Anderson of the New York Times notes:
But two years before that 1993 agreement was signed, Eric Swann, a 300-pound defensive lineman who had been out of high school in Lillington, N.C., for only two years, was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals with the sixth pick in the first round of the 1991 draft.
Swann, who never enrolled in college, had been playing semipro football for the Bay State Titans, according to the Cardinals media guide, while lugging pipe for an electric company and running errands for a restaurant.
The three-year rule had been inserted in the N.F.L. constitution in 1990, but when Swann's eligibility for the draft developed in 1991, the N.F.L. was involved in other legal cases, notably those involving Freeman McNeil and Marvin Powell. It chose to ignore Swann's situation. Despite chronic knee injuries, Swann, a Pro Bowl alternate in 1993, endured for a decade with the Cardinals and the Carolina Panthers.
The N.F.L. will argue that Swann's arrival predated the 1993 collective bargaining agreement, but it remains a precedent that could haunt the league in the Clarett case. Why is the three-year rule so vital now, the judge may want to know, when Swann was out of high school for only two years when he was drafted?
The answer to that question is that Swann, a giant at 6'5" and over 300 pounds, was cleary ready physically for the rigors of NFL football. That, and not the three-year rule, should be the only determinant as to whether or not somebody should be in the NFL. And the only way to ensure that, is to protect a player's right to try, and fail, to make it in the big time.
I had completely forgotten about Swann, whose arrival in the NFL kicked up a lot of dust in the media back in 1993. But at the time, I can't recall any issue ever being made about his draft status at all. Kudos to Anderson for digging up what has to be an embarassing piece of old news for the NFL.
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From a legal standpoint, all that matters is whether the three-year rule is a subject of collective bargaining. Whether there was one exception to the policy prior to the CBA's adoption is not significant. Michael Wilbon's Sept. 25 column in the Post explains this in good detail.
Posted by:
at September 27, 2003 12:59 PM
My understanding is that the three year rule is agreed upon by the NFL and NFLPA but is not part of the collective bargaining agreement. Is Clarett good enough to catch on with an NFL squad? (It appears he was a Heisman trophy candidate as a sophomore, whicn is unheard of. Archie Griffen won the Heisman at Ohio State as a junior and a senior). What about the 1989 challenge from Oklahoma State junior Barry Sanders -- who was let in after just three years in college to avoid a potential public-relations disaster -- the NFL kept out everybody until four years after high school graduation. That is, the length of a college career.
Tagliabue and the NFL are very bright guys, unlike say Bettman and the NHL, so when they had the PA buck naked and bent over, during the last negotiations, why didn't they make the three-year-rule part of the cb agreement?
Jeff Dunnavant of Dateline Alabama writes -
"The bad news continued this week when word leaked out that Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett will most likely not return to the Buckeyes at all this season. Most, including myself, don't believe Clarett will ever strap on the silver helmet for Ohio State again. He started serving a suspension late this summer when he admitted to lying to school officials, as well as police, regarding the exact amount of stolen equipment from a car he claimed to be driving (claimed being the important word because we now have learned that it wasn't actually Clarett's car). Just the type of scandal the college football world needs as its season kicks off.
But shouldn't we have already grown used to this sort of behavior from Clarett? The kid is only a sophomore, and this is the third time he has made headline news for off-the-field incidents. The first came last January, right before the Buckeyes were to play Miami in the Fiesta Bowl for the national championship. Clarett wanted to leave the team temporarily to fly home for the funeral of a close friend. Clarett claimed that Ohio State wouldn't allow him to leave and wouldn't pay for his flight back to Ohio. The public, ignorant as we all were at the time, forgave him and brushed it off.
Now, two more allegations have arisen. One, that he received preferential treatment by a professor last December on a final exam, the other that he lied to police. Is it me or does Clarett come with more baggage than Albert Means?"
Posted by:
at September 27, 2003 08:54 PM
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10:57 AM