ESPN News: Supreme Court Rejects Clarett's appeal

[BrudLee]

Originally Posted by sportscurmudgeon

I suspect that any team is allowed to draft anyone they want to draft. The NFL would not allow him to sign and play under current rules, but if you want to draft a 6 year old kid, I doubt the league would stop you from drafting him - or her.

Clarett will be eligible for the NFL in December because he graduated from high school in December three years ago. If he prevails in the appeals court and the league cannot get the Supreme Court to hear the case or if Clarett prevails in the Supreme Court this year (not likely the high court could get it on the docket and decided this year but one never knows), then Clarett could be in s Supplemental Draft. The NFL said that it would have such a draft withing 10 days of losing in court.

Curmudgeon, you bring about an interesting point. If someone (not you, Mr. Snyder) felt like "wasting" a pick on Clarett, would he receive his rights upon:
A) Successful appeal of the stay,
OR
B) The December anniversary of his graduation?
If either of the above occurred before his draft rights were revoked after a year, would the drafting team be allowed to sign him?
More to the point (since he is a much more skilled prospect), when is Mike Williams's three year anniversary?

[skinsfanthru&thru]

Originally Posted by Gmanc711

Was Drew Henson a valid choice when the Texans took him last year? I'm pretty sure he wasent at that point.

i'm pretty sure henson was drafted because he had put his hat into the ring, but opted instead to play for the yankees and their farm team. thus houston retained his rights and were able to trade him.

[JoeRedskin]

I am not sure if my original question was clear:

Before playing in the NFL, must a player be subjected to a draft so that every team, in its turn, has the opportunity to reserve your playing rights to themselves? And, if so, does this mean that, unless and until you are eligible to be drafted, you cannot play in the NFL?

I think that the answer to my questions are yes and yes. With the result that players not eligible for the draft cannot play in the NFL.

If this is true, then from a purely legal standpoint, my gut feeling is that you can't draft ineligible players or, if you do, you just waste your pick and have nothing:

1. The draft only reserves to teams the exlcusive negotiating rights to a player.
2. Players ineligible for the draft cannot play in the NFL and, thus, have no right to negotiate a contract with any team.
3. As such, teams drafting such a player gain nothing because the player has no negotiating rights to exclusively reserve.

For example: As to Henson, he was eligible for the draft under the CBA last year but not the year before (which is when he left college to play baseball). Although last year eligible, he chose to forego football for a year and continue playing baseball; essentially, sitting out of football for a year. After drafting him last year in his first year of eligibility, Houston would have lost their rights to him if they had not signed him by tomorrow's draft. Instead of signing him, they traded their exclusive negotiating rights to the cowboys. If the cowboys had not signed him by tomorrow's draft then they would have lost their rights to him and anyone could have drafted him.

Similarly, I think if someone drafts Clarrett in tomorrow's draft they have nothing because, until and unless the Supreme Court reverses the Circuit Court (an outcome I seriously doubt) Clarrett has no right to negotiate with any team. The CBA is binding until it is nullified and, if nullified, given the Stay and Ginsberg's ruling, it will be nullified on a prospective basis, not retroactively.

[SKINSnCANES]

If we drafted Williams with our fifth round pick we would have his rights for the year, at somepoint during the year he would become eligable. But I dont think you can draft anyone, you have to declare for the draft and fill out paper work im pretty sure.

[JudgeJebus]

Originally Posted by sportscurmudgeon

I suspect that any team is allowed to draft anyone they want to draft. The NFL would not allow him to sign and play under current rules, but if you want to draft a 6 year old kid, I doubt the league would stop you from drafting him - or her.

That doesn't seem like it can be right. If it were, someone would have already thought (long before the Clarett case) of using a late round pick on a star sophomore, just so that they would have the rights to the player when he became eligible and came out the next year. Using a seventh round pick this year to get a player who would go in the first round next year would be a steal.

[skinsfanthru&thru]

i don't think snyder would want to rock the boat by doing this and more than likely further dampen the city's chance to host a superbowl.