Fighting the System

The tale rings familiar in this era of big-money sports: A college football player has a good season or two, hears the siren song of cash and leaves school early to turn professional.

In this instance, however, the year was 1925 and the player was Harold “Red” Grange, lured away from Illinois by the Chicago Bears.

Though the legendary Grange had exhausted his eligibility, fans were aghast that he would drop out midway through his senior year. The fledgling National Football League, fearful of alienating those who ran the more popular college game, quickly passed a rule barring players from joining its ranks before graduation.

Seventy-nine years later, the modern version of the so-called “Grange rule” is being challenged in a federal lawsuit filed by another prodigious young running back, Maurice Clarett, who wants to join the NFL after only one season at Ohio State, two years after his high school graduation.

At stake is a football tradition that dates back decades, players matriculating through the college ranks before becoming eligible for the NFL draft.

If Clarett succeeds, critics worry about a generation of teenagers trying for the pros before they are physically ready. College football could suffer, they say, its best athletes slipping away earlier or jumping straight from high school.

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, in his annual speech before the Super Bowl, indicated last week that the league would not back down.

“Our system works,” he said.

But in court documents, Clarett claims the NFL is violating antitrust law by unfairly restricting his opportunity to earn a living. Documents assert that the rule “exists solely to perpetuate the NCAA college football system, which serves as a free ‘farm’ system for the NFL, saving the league tens of millions of dollars in development and training expenses.”

Complicating matters, experts say, is Clarett himself. Hardly a sympathetic figure, he recently pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and has been suspended by Ohio State for NCAA violations. He has seemed to waver between turning pro and returning to the Buckeyes.

Still, with U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin expected to rule soon, Clarett -- who in public has spoken rarely in months -- is said to be adamant about pursuing the case, determined in his role as crusader.

“He’s a principled young man,” his attorney, Alan C. Milstein, said. “We’re going to take this case as long as it goes in order to establish this principle.”

Teen athletes are not new to the world of professional sports. Baseball and hockey draft players out of high school, sending many of them to the minor leagues.

Basketball’s youth movement has been led by Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and LeBron James, who made the jump last year and signed a $90-million endorsement contract with Nike.

But football has held itself apart, insisting that the game’s violence demands greater physical maturity. The eligibility rule has held fast since the 1920s, said John Carroll, author of “Red Grange and the Rise of Modern Football.”

In a slight alteration, the NFL now allows players to declare themselves available for the draft three years after high school graduation.

Clarett came to test this standard through a mixture of tremendous success and controversy.

Months out of high school, he became the first freshman ever to start the season at tailback for Ohio State. His 1,237 yards rushing and 18 touchdowns helped the Buckeyes to the 2002 national championship.

Then, last spring, he was charged with lying on a campus police report by exaggerating the value of items stolen from a borrowed car. The university later suspended him amid allegations that he’d violated NCAA rules by receiving thousands of dollars from a family friend and lying about it to investigators.

In the fall, as the Buckeyes began their season, Clarett filed suit against the NFL.

The criminal case ended in a settlement last month, with Clarett pleading guilty to a lesser charge and receiving a $100 fine.

“I look forward to shifting all my attention back to my studies and the team at the Ohio State University,” he said in a statement.

But the university has yet to apply to the NCAA for his reinstatement.

His attorney downplayed the courthouse statement.

“He’s keeping his options open because we don’t know what will happen with the lawsuit,” Milstein said. “If he wins the lawsuit, he’s in the NFL.”

His suit claims the NFL has violated the Sherman Act’s protection of free trade. A memorandum filed with the court states: “The door to the market is closed to over half of the college players, causing the type of harm to competition that the antitrust laws were intended to prevent.”

In other documents, Milstein cites a 1971 case in which Spencer Haywood, who had left the University of Detroit after his sophomore season to join the Denver Rockets of the American Basketball Assn., won a Supreme Court decision opening the NBA draft to underclassmen. Also noted are two cases against now-defunct leagues, Ken Linseman’s winning the right to play in the World Hockey Assn. and Robert Boris’ succeeding against the United States Football League.

“I think Clarett’s got a good case,” said Mark Conrad, an associate professor of legal and ethical studies at Fordham University. “He’s a troublemaker, we know that, but I think he stands a good chance.”

Pro football has argued that all its teams carry the maximum 53 players and that salaries have not been suppressed -- thus the eligibility rule has not hindered competition. The league insists any change will ultimately jeopardize young players.

“This rule really helps players mature and avoids players making premature judgments,” Tagliabue told HBO’s Bob Costas in December.

The NFL players’ union and others in the football establishment have supported this argument.

“A lot of times, youngsters are capable of playing off extraordinary talent in high school,” said Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Assn. “But they may not be as grounded in fundamentals, which are essential to longevity in college and certainly the NFL ranks.”

Teaff said a rule change could wreak havoc on college football’s recruiting season, which normally concludes in February.

If a top high school player were allowed to test the waters in the NFL draft, in April, any school recruiting him would have to keep a scholarship open with the possibility of winding up empty-handed.

Not everyone is sympathetic to the schools. Mel Helitzer, a sports administration professor at Ohio University, pointed out that the NCAA generated millions of dollars in ticket sales and television revenue off the sweat of young stars.

“The longer they can keep their kids in school, the happier they are,” he said.

At Fordham, Conrad suspects NFL players have equally selfish reasons for opposing change: “I think veteran players are not terribly thrilled about competition from youngsters.”

Conrad and others watching the case expect the judge’s decision to hinge on a critical interpretation.

The NFL has argued that the eligibility rule was discussed with union leaders during negotiations for the collective bargaining agreement. If management and the union agree on a rule for the benefit of both parties, union members cannot challenge it under antitrust law.

Milstein has countered that the rule is not specifically included in the agreement, nor does he believe it was discussed. Further, he says, Clarett is not a union member.

“That’s the key right there,” Conrad said.

A ruling from Scheindlin’s New York courtroom has been promised in the next week or two, in time for Clarett to participate in the NFL’s pre-draft combine starting Feb. 18. No matter which way the judge decides, the loser is expected to appeal in a case that -- like Haywood’s -- could reach the Supreme Court.

If Clarett loses, he will have to wait for next year’s draft. If he wins, it could open the floodgates for teenagers in the NFL.

Veteran players say the real test might come on the field.

“I know some of these guys, basketball players, go right from high school into the pro game,” Miami Dolphin defensive end Jason Taylor said. “They also need to realize that football is a little different than basketball.... These are grown men playing against each other.”