NFL teams will draft more than 220 players this week. Odds are most, if not all of them will be college students.
That’s because NFL teams cannot draft anyone they want. The NFL requires that players “have been out of high school for at least three years and must have used up their college eligibility before the start of the next college football season.” Some college juniors can apply for a waiver from the league to enter the draft a year early, but they’re not the majority.
If the NFL wants to have the best competition possible, this requirement that essentially forces people to play college football shouldn’t exist. Playing college football isn’t necessary to play in the NFL.
Rare instances exist in which guys didn’t play college football and made it pro. Vince Papale, a Philadelphia Eagles special teams player and the subject of the 2006 Disney film Invincible, was a college track runner. Antonio Gates, one of the best tight ends in NFL history, was a college basketball player. Former New England Patriots kicker John Smith had never played American football before moving to the United States; the first organized football game he played was a professional one. And Sav Rocca, an Australian punter who played in the NFL from 2007 to 2013, never attended college; he was an excellent Australian football player whose kicking skills transferred well to American football.
Players can learn football skills on their own time. Although it’s not nearly of the same magnitude, I taught myself how to be a long snapper by watching YouTube videos and snapping a football at a tree in my yard before my senior year of high school, and I helped my team win a state championship.
The NFL putting people in a spot in which they are pressured to attend college and play college football to play in the league is another example of credentialism plaguing our society. Employers should look at skills, not arbitrary requirements that don’t necessarily reflect competence.
We live in a country where employers use degree requirements to filter out applicants, even if the degree has nothing to do with the profession. In some states, you need a government-issued license for jobs such as being a florist, being a fortune-teller, or braiding hair. Depending on the state, the government can take that license away if one struggles to pay off student loan debt.
We need a meritocratic society. The best people should get the jobs, and people should have different options to gain the necessary skills to do the job. A sociology degree doesn’t qualify one to play quarterback in the NFL, so the league should stop perpetuating this broken system.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts.
