Ohio State's Maurice Clarett Sues NFL

ABC/ESPN Breaking News ^ | September 23, 2003 | staff writer

[rftc]

Suspended Ohio State tailback Maurice Clarett sued the National Football League today in an historic attempt to gain entry into the league.

Under the current rules, Clarett is not eligible for entry until 2005.

[discostu]

At the least it should have been the NFL and NFLPA. The worse his complaint is drafter the better as far as I'm concerned. Teenagers are bad for professional sports. And as a former manager who's planning on managing again I fear court rulings that limit an employer's ability to screen his employees as he sees fit.

[LittleRedRooster]

But businesses are not required to hire all qualified candidates. They can screen them any way they choose that is not illegal.

That's just crazy talk, you don't get to choose based on orgin of birth, religion, age, skin color, so don't say they get to choose based on whatever an employer wants.
Secondly businesses are required to accept applicaton from all quailfied applicants.

[RamingtonStall]

They get LOTS of Public Money to pay for their Stadiums, Practice Facilities, Parking Lots, etc..

RamS

[byu-fan]

Why is everyone so quick to jump on the league-as-single-firm theory? OK, so they call themselves franchisees. They are still not single entities. If they were single entities, they could not sue each other, and we know that happens - every time someone wants a better TV deal or to move locations. No, the NFL's designation does not control.

The NFL is subject to antitrust regulation - maybe USFL's damages were nominal, but they were found liable for antitrust violations. That being the case, why should an antitrust action against collectiev refusal to deal in hiring not turn on the same analysis?

Sure, a law firm can require that its hires be lawyers - not a violation of antitrust. All firms do it, but it isn't an antitrust violation - conspiracy amongst firms. States have laws setting standards for bar admissions. Last I checked, there was no state or federal law requiring 3 years out of high school for NFL participation. Isn't that classic conspiracy? It's also another thing if, due to market considerations, no firm wants to hire him, independant of collusion. Hard evidence to prove, but I think his argument is that without this rule, agreed to amongst the teams, he would find a team willing to hire. Again, kind of depends on if franchises are single firms, but how can they sue each other if they are? How did a/t liability attach in USFL?

[ContemptofCourt]

What are you talking about....lets look past the BS, which is what this is.....

The NFL and the NCAA are in cahoots...the NFL uses the NCAA as its farm system, and in return, the NCAA gets to use the best and brightest prospective football players to make millions and millions of dollars off of their backs for three years.

This is what the NFL is going to have to explain away before the judge, and why not one legal analyst believes that the NFL has a chance.

[Bikers4Bush]

I can own a McDonald's franchise and still sue another one.

It's no dfferent.

And if you look it's not so much the teams suing each other as it is A team suing the NFL.

[rftc]

Did I mis something or are the NFL's rules in the founding documents of our nation?

[Bikers4Bush]

The NFL can point to the NBA and the Kobe Bryants of the world as evidence of why they don't want to take teenagers.

That will make their case for them in a heartbeat.

[anniegetyourgun]

All a distraction.

OSU: 4-0

[Chancellor Palpatine]

I knew it was coming. If the owners were smart, they'd lock his ass out completely. Let him go to the CFL or the European leagues.

[NC Conservative]

He does not have a right. The NFL is private and can set their own rules. Obviously you have never owned your own business!!

I understand that but he in this case does not have a right to play in the NFL. Instead he can EARN his way to the NFL. That was the topic. Gheeez.

[ContemptofCourt]

Is Kobe a teenager? How about LeBron James? Any more stupid arguments?

Just what is the NFL afraid of? If it really thought that teenagers could not make it, then why would any NFL team draft one? Unless, of course, the NFL is concerned that it, instead of the NCAA, would have to develop its own talent.

[litany_of_lies]

"No one has a right to play in the NFL. No one."

Au contraire. If a team wishes to draft him (and all 30 would probably want him), and he is an adult (age-wise, clearly not head-wise in his case), he DOES have the right to be eligible for the draft. Keeping him out of the draft effectively denies him the right to play.

This kid is an unsavory character who has gotten and continues to get a lot of bad advice, but that doesn't change the fact that he has the physical tools to play in the NFL right now, and cannot be prevented from doing so. He would be, in theory, smarter to wait until he has another good year at OSU, assuming they would take him back in 2004, but OTOH he could also get seriously injured.

The NFL's best hope is to employ every legal stalling tactic ever invented, because they have NO case. Unless (and I doubt it), there is an age requirement in the NFLPA contract that is based on a lot of defensible studies of what might happen to 19 year-old running backs.

[E Rocc]

Is Kobe a teenager? How about LeBron James?

LeBron and Maurice are about a year apart in age, grew up not far from each other, and are friends (LeBron was an all-state football player his junior year). That's what I suspect this is all about. Maurice is injury prone and saw what happened to Willis McGahee during the Fiesta Bowl where Ohio State Won The National Championship.

-Eric

[Bikers4Bush]

Kobe was a teenager when drafted ncie mess he's in, the jury is still out on LeBron. Any more stupid analysis or are you done?

The NFL is afraid of boys trying to play a mans game, getting hurt and suing them for not keeping the men from beating their asses.

Clarett would be torn apart in the NFL and then he'd hold the NFL responsible for the whooping he received.

It has nothing to do with developing talent it has to do with players being adult enough to handle the pressures.

Do you think it would make a damn bit of difference to the NFL to scout a high school game as opposed to a college game? Hell no.

The people that are scared are the current players. If the product is dilluted by unproven players then the obvious result is lower pay for them all.

Clarett is not mature enough, and not fit enough to compete in the NFL. Regardless of what you think.

The NFL has rules, if he doesn't want to follow them then he can go play in canada.

[Lost Highway]

NFL Player's Union head Gene Upshaw said (in an ESPN article), "We support [the NFL's] position. ... I don't think he should be playing in the NFL yet. He should stay in school. This will be here for him.

I wonder if Mr. Upshaw and the rest of the PA will compensate Mr. Clarett if he blows out a knee before he becomes "eligible" for the draft?

[Bikers4Bush]

He has the right to be eligible for the draft once he's met the requirements and not a moment sooner.

If he can't meet the requirements it's his problem.

[jonalvy44]

so it will be interesting to see if the NFL can bar him...

[LenS]

What you are saying is you want to make the NFL practice illegal. Fine. But that's not the same thing as the rule being illegal today. It's not.

Has the rule ever really been challenged? Since court cases tend to take years, has any player ever bothered to make the challenge and take it all the way to court? Why make a challenge that would probably last longer than most pro careers. But if no one has ever challenged the rule, then how can we say that it is definitively legal?

On a separate unrelated note, would the CFL even be relevant to the court fight? I'm not sure that the argument that one could leave the country to work would matter to a court deciding matters within the US (I'm assuming Arlen Spectre isn't involved *g*). In terms of a US case, the relevant alternatives to the NFL would be some of the semi-pro leagues and the Arena league. Though, I can only recall Eric Swann being the example of a semi-pro player who was drafted so that might not be a good example.

[ContemptofCourt]

Jim Brown was 20 years old (the same age Clarett will be for the 2004 draft) when he entered the NFL and went on to be rookie of the year.

Kobe did not do anything "improper" as a teenager...and your argument there is just stupid.

In fact, you have made no argument based on fact, law, or logic...you just keep saying that the NFL will prevail.

And the "maturity" argument is just silly....shall I rattle off names of immature NFL stars?

The NFL has rules, but are they violative of the Antitrust Act? Betcha they are....