The NFL has a rule where you must have been in college or out of high school for at least three years to qualify for the NFL. This is a rule that every high school and college football player must abide by if they want to go to the NFL. The rule was created in 1990 to help players physically prepare, using college essentially as an informal minor league.
This poses the question: is this requirement necessary for football even though other professional sports don’t have this requirement?
Personally, I believe that although the rule isn’t applicable in other sports, it’s still necessary for football.
Many say the reason for the rule is because of the physical attributes required for football. They claim football players are heavy, and a young man’s body straight out of high school simply isn’t ready for the NFL.
This does not matter as much in other sports. In a study conducted by NFL football operations, they claimed that, “On average, NFL players tend to weigh 29 pounds more than their NBA counterparts.” According to RunRepeat, NBA players average at 217 pounds.
In the NBA, players like Lebron James, who weighed in at a whopping 240 pounds coming out of his senior year, are already physically ready. And, unlike football, basketball does not require the ability to tackle or evade players on the opposing team. It takes less contact which will in turn put less stress on a young body. A certain amount of strength is needed, but the amount of physical grit needed isn’t as high.
“You just really need the skill and the mindset,” said Grant St. Martin, freshman and basketball player. “You need to be strong but you don’t need to be crazy strong.”
In other sports, in the rare cases an athlete is physically ready, they should be allowed to go from high school straight to playing professionally. If you’ve been working towards it tirelessly, you deserve it.
“A lot of players don’t have the option to go straight from high school to professional,” said Will Hagedorn, freshman and basketball and volleyball player. “It’s such a hard thing to do physically [that] it’s almost like there’s already a requirement.”
While this rule is not necessary for other sports, it is still required for football as the physical ability needed is much greater to do things like avoiding tackles and pushing through defense.
Head injuries caused by large amounts of physical contact is another reason many vouch for the rule to be instated.
Even sports that have great amounts of physical contact, like ice hockey, contain lesser chances of brain injuries that can potentially cause problems for an entire lifetime. According to the National Institutes of Health, the NHL has concussion rates at 5.8-6.1 per 100 games. The NIH also reports that the NFL has a rate of 61.7 concussions per 100 games in the regular season. The NFL has 10 times the amount of concussions compared to the sport that arguably has the second most contact compared to it. Most other sports have even lesser amounts of concussions, further emphasizing how obsolete this rule is in other sports.
So, this further negates the need for the rule in other sports while emphasizing the need in football.
Another reason that many vouch for a college requirement is because college serves as the minor league for the NFL since the NFL doesn’t have its own designated minor league. However, other sports have their own minor leagues.
For example, professional baseball has a very prominent minor league, with multiple divisions and over 200 teams. Basketball has the G-League and hockey has the American Hockey League.
The NFL needs a minor league, while other sports already have one. This further highlights the need for a college requirement, since it will help players get skilled enough to play in the NFL.
The NFL requires so much more physical strength and ability to face contact than other sports. College is necessary to serve as a bridge between high school and the pro leagues, since a young man straight out of high school simply doesn’t have the ability to tank a 300 pound man slamming into him. A senior in college will have a greater physical maturity to tank these hits and avoid injury.
In conclusion, this rule will need to stay in place because of the physical requirements of football. Kids straight out of high school will not have the strength and grit required to play in the NFL, and if this rule was removed, it would cause so many unnecessary negative consequences. It has been in place for years for a reason, and we shouldn’t try to fix something that isn’t broken.
