Collinsworth Trades Touchdowns for Torts

Cris Collinsworth is often the subject of discussion in his contract class at the University of Cincinnati law school.

Three years ago, the Cincinnati Bengals’ wide receiver attempted to jump to the USFL, but then decided against the move.

“In my contracts class, I get singled out all the time for having tried to get out of my contract back when all the USFL stuff happened,” said the first-year law student. “So, every time someone tries to breach a contract in that class, they immediately refer back to the renegotiating session of 1983 and Mr. Collinsworth.”

Collinsworth entered law school to prepare for the end of his football career.

“I needed something else,” he said. “Football is a physical challenge and it’s fun, but after playing football for most of my 27 years I needed something else to keep me going and keep me interested. This is kind of my outlet for that.”

Collinsworth said he chose law school “because the only thing I do very well besides football is talk, so it seems to be a natural tie-in for me.”

“I’m not sure it didn’t have something to do with a little bit of an ego thing, too, wanting to prove that you can do something besides play football. I think some of the stereotypes of football players have always really bothered me.

“A lot of the brightest people I know are involved in the game of football. I don’t think you’ll find anybody any smarter than (teammate) Steve Kreider and (former teammate) Pat McInally. Yet, the stereotypes continue.”

A dean’s list student at the University of Florida, with a 3.15 average as an accounting major, Collinsworth was accepted into law school out of college and had planned to start after his rookie year.

But that was the 1981, the year Bengals went to the Super Bowl, thus wiping out his winter semester. Collinsworth decided to remain in Cincinnati through the offseason this year, and he’ll take a full course-load in the spring.

He’s taking two classes this fall, torts and contracts. School forces him to miss about a half-hour of meetings one day a week.

Still, Collinsworth is having one of his best seasons ever, with 28 receptions and five touchdowns entering today’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.