Not that the NFL needs another headache right now, but why not let a young man two years removed from high school play professional football? The wow factor on South Carolina sophomore defensive end Jadeveon Clowney’s talent level is once-every-decade or more in intensity. He’d be the number one overall pick in the 2013 draft and would stand to make millions of dollars.
Talent evaluators say Clowney has the tools to immediately become a player on par with a young Julius Peppers. Clowney’s big hit/fumble recovery that turned the outcome of the Outback Bowl in favor of the Gamecocks on New Year’s Day is reminiscent of the destruction L-T doled out when he played the game.
Never one to over-hype a college player’s talent or make rash assertions, CBS college football analyst Gary Danielson told Francesa last week he wishes a player of Clowney’s caliber would re-test the NFL’s restrictions on draft eligibility.
Under terms of the collective bargaining agreement in place until 2020, three full NFL seasons must pass before a high school grad (or age equivalent) can become eligible for the draft. That means Clowney – and Texas A & M redshirt freshman Johnny Manziel must wait one more season before going pro.
Danielson calls Clowney the “LeBron James of defensive lineman.” He has watched Clowney practice in Columbia, SC and says the six-foot-six, 250-pounder runs wind sprints with the wide receivers.
The last serious legal challenge to the NFL’s three year wait for draft eligibility came a decade ago and got shot down at the US Court of Appeals level (one notch below the US Supreme Court – which refused to hear the case).
I’d agree with Danielson that football should be no different than the other major sports in how it sets the age bar for young players.
Clowney is on record saying he’ll seek to win the Heisman at South Carolina next year. That’s great. You just hope he doesn’t get hurt.
While Danielson says he’s unsure whether the NFL’s unfair barrier to entry would withstand a fresh legal challenge, he someday expects a prominent coach at the college level to protect a talented scholarship player by keeping him off the field for a season. “I am waiting for the first college coach to say `I can’t play him.’ I am waiting for the first college coach to say `He’s not blowing out his knee on my watch,’” said Danielson.
-Jacksonville punter Bryan Anger’s tremendous rookie season validates the unusually high position (third round) he was taken in the 2012 NFL draft, so count on another punter going early when players are picked in 2013. Expect LSU’s redshirt sophomore punter Brad Wing to go as high or higher than Anger (70th pick overall) to one of several teams on the lookout for a cannon of a leg.