NFL Busy After Clarett Case Ruling

The phones at the NFL office in New York were busy Friday, a day after a federal judge had ruled that underclassmen, such as Ohio State’s Maurice Clarett, were eligible for the draft.

Brendan Moynihan, a communication assistant for the league, said it had received “a lot of calls.”

But the activity might have been premature, because the NFL is uncertain how U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin’s ruling will play out.

The league notified Scheindlin on Friday that it would file papers Tuesday, seeking a stay of her decision, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said.

Scheindlin has scheduled a hearing on the case for Wednesday, and the stay application may be addressed then.

Although the NFL plans to appeal the judge’s decision and has a history of taking cases all the way to the Supreme Court, the league apparently has no way of preventing underclassmen from declaring themselves eligible for the April draft.

“I think it’s unlikely that we would get a decision from the appeals court between now and the draft,” said Jeff Pash, an NFL executive vice president and the league’s chief lawyer, during a conference call. “I can’t absolutely rule that out, but just in the ordinary course, the appellant process takes a number of months longer than we have between now and the latter part of April.”

That means the NFL expects Clarett and other young players to be considered for the draft unless Scheindlin’s ruling is stayed by the courts.

On Friday, the league sent a memo to every team, updating player-eligibility rules:

* Any player seeking eligibility for the 2004 draft must follow customary NFL procedures and submit a completed special eligibility form obtained from the NFL player personnel department.

* Completed forms must be received by the NFL office no later than March 1.

* Players will not be permitted to bypass the March 1 deadline to seek eligibility for a later supplemental draft, and no supplemental draft will be held to accommodate such an election.

* The March 1 deadline will not apply to those players who were previously eligible to apply for the draft by Jan. 15 but elected not to apply.

With the NFL’s Indianapolis scouting combine starting Feb. 18, players who apply for special eligibility under the Clarett ruling by Feb. 15 will be considered for invitations to the combine.

But new draft eligibility deadlines do not guarantee a late rush of NFL prospects, according to draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. on the espn.com website.

“Should this ruling hold up, it will not open the floodgates to an influx of freshmen and sophomores entering the draft,” Kiper said. “Look at all the potential first-round juniors who returned to college this year for their final year: [Carnell] Williams and [Ronnie] Brown at Auburn, [Cedric] Benson and linebacker Derrick Johnson at Texas and defensive end Dan Cody at Oklahoma. And don’t forget that every year, guys like Eli Manning and Roy Williams head back to school and become top-10 caliber prospects.

“Some kids will test the waters, no doubt, but with so many good juniors already shying away from the NFL, this ruling should not create a stampede of first- and second-year players to the NFL.”