The definition of a Slippery Slope: An argument states that a relatively small first step leads to a chain of related events culminating in some significant effect, much like an object given a small push over the edge of a slope sliding all the way to the bottom.
I will explain why the NFL is heading down that path after Profootballtalk.com explains how Terrelle Pryor is now eligible for supplemental draft.
The NFL announced this morning that Pryor is eligible and set the date of the supplemental draft for Monday, August 22.
In an odd twist on the NFL’s decision, Commissioner Roger Goodell determined that Pryor will be ineligible to practice or play in the first five weeks of the NFL regular season, although he will be allowed to play in what remains of the preseason. The NFL apparently wants Pryor to feel some pain for the problems he caused at Ohio State.
If you look at the history of the supplemental draft it is filled with players who have been ruled ineligible in college for various things. From academic to criminal, but none had any restrictions when they came into the NFL.
If the NFL plans to start policing what happens in college, I see that as a problem. Reggie Bush put USC on two years probation, should he be suspended for two years by the NFL?
Pryor is being used as an example, but only because he was caught before the draft.
What happens with players after the draft? What happens to all the Miami players who are now in the NFL? The NFL should just mind its business. The day a college player for whatever the reason decides he no long wants to be in college, he should be free to apply to the NFL without any penalities.
If the NFL felt that strongly about it, they should have made Pryor wait until the 2012 to enter the league. Roger Goodell in my opinion has way too much power in my opinion.
In the long run it isn’t going to hurt Pryor because he wasn’t going to contribute much if any this year, but the slide down that slippery slope is starting.
