ESPN News: Supreme Court Rejects Clarett's appeal
 

talking about it on ESPN News.

also: Mike Williams withdraws his appeal/case

So how will this affect the draft? Will it put us at an advantage or a disadvantage?

Clarett was expected to go in the 2nd or 3rd round, so it really doesn't have any impact.

This is probably a dumb question but could an NFL team rule circumvent this ruling by signing Clarett as a free agent and maybe sending him to NFL Europe, for example ,this summer then maybe putting him on the practice squad?

Well I really wasn't talking about Clarett, I was thinking more of Mike Williams.

[QUOTE=smootsmack]This is probably a dumb question but could an NFL team rule circumvent this ruling by signing Clarett as a free agent and maybe sending him to NFL Europe, for example ,this summer then maybe putting him on the practice squad?[/QUOTE]

i'm pretty sure he'd still have to qualify for the 3 years out of high school rule. does anyone know when that'd be for him? if so i could see the raiders r buccaneers possibly doing it.

He will have been out of high school for three years next year. Hes a true sophmore right now, so next " Season " would have been his Jr. Season, making him him eligable.

Clarett totally screwed up in college and now he's having to pay for it. I hope Williams gets his eligibility back, even though he's an enemy in the Pac 10. He doesn't deserve to get screwed.

There is a rumor that Al Davis will draft Mike Williams in the final round of the draft and then Davis will sue the NFL to get the rule declared out of bounds.

This would not be the first time Davis has sued the league. In fact, Davis has probably sued everyone on the planet directly or indriectly at one time or another.

[QUOTE=sportscurmudgeon]There is a rumor that Al Davis will draft Mike Williams in the final round of the draft and then Davis will sue the NFL to get the rule declared out of bounds.

This would not be the first time Davis has sued the league. In fact, Davis has probably sued everyone on the planet directly or indriectly at one time or another.[/QUOTE]

how could he draft someone who's not a valid choice? that's like saying u want to draft your best friend or the beer guy or something, lol. doesn't a draft hopeful have to be somehow recognized by the nfl as a participant for him to be chosen?

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

Clarette will be eligible for the NFL in December. I'm guessing a team could pick him up as a free agent then.

The supreme court just denied the appeal of the stay, right? So, Clarett and Williams will not be in the main draft, but could win the case eventually and be put in a supplemental draft.

[QUOTE=Daseal]Clarette will be eligible for the NFL in December. I'm guessing a team could pick him up as a free agent then.[/QUOTE]

I wonder. How long must you be out of school/how old must you be before you can enter the NFL w/out be subjected to the draft?

Must all first year players be subject to drafting (either in the regular or in a supplemental draft) before be allowed to choose your team as a free agent? I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case.

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.

[QUOTE=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.[/QUOTE]
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?

[QUOTE=Gmanc711]Was Drew Henson a valid choice when the Texans took him last year? I'm pretty sure he wasent at that point.[/QUOTE]

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.

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.

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.

[QUOTE=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.[/QUOTE]

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.

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.