‘Doesn’t Sit Well With Me’ — Steve Sarkisian Doesn’t Hold Back on NCAA Welcoming Ex NFL Players Back to College
· Yahoo Sports
The landscape of college football has taken a new turn as the NCAA’s changing eligibility framework and recent court rulings have opened the door for some players who pursued NFL opportunities to potentially return to college football, subject to applicable eligibility rules. Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian is against the idea and believes former professional football players shouldn’t join college rosters at the expense of existing players.
During a recent conversation with the media on Monday, the head coach said adding an ex-NFL player would be morally wrong and said:
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“I really believe that you’ve signed a professional contract,These players on all of our rosters, not just ours, have been working for nine months for this moment on Saturday, which then will lead into the next five to six months.”
“The fact that somebody out there is going to take a player out off an NFL roster and tell somebody who’s been doing it for nine months to go kick rocks-that doesn’t sit well with me. I think that’s wrong. That is morally wrong. So I think our presidents, ADs, and chancellors got it right, and we’ll support it, and we’ll follow up.”
The idea of bringing ex-NFL players back is not a common phenomenon in college football. However, roster turnover itself is common in the NFL. Players who spent the entire offseason, training camp and preseason with a team can lose their roster spots to newcomers claimed on waivers or signed as free agents.
The head coach’s biggest concern is that the changing eligibility landscape could create opportunities for players who spent only four years at the college level to potentially receive another season. The situation has gained even more attention because of LSU.
Lane Kiffin and the Tigers have explored adding players with professional experience, including Dae’Quan Wright, Zxavian Harris and Junior Tuihalamaka. Wright, who spent time with the Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns, participated in LSU’s Monday walkthrough.
Kiffin was completely in favor of this approach and floated the idea of bringing in former NFL players to LSU’s player leadership committee. The group unanimously supported adding players who could help the Tigers win.
However, the situation has created a larger debate about where the line between college and professional football should be drawn. The SEC introduced restrictions designed to prevent players who had signed professional contracts from returning to conference rosters, although those restrictions have faced legal challenges.
Sarkisian’s stance appears to focus more on protecting the players already inside college programs. Those players have spent months training and competing for their opportunities, and bringing in someone directly from an NFL roster could potentially push one of them aside.
With LSU willing to explore its available options and Sarkisian firmly opposing the practice, the debate surrounding former NFL players returning to college could remain a major talking point throughout the season.
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About Prasen Singh
Prasen is an NFL analyst at Gridiron Heroics. While he has an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering, he couldn’t resist his love for football that led him to explore the NFL landscape. Prasen has over four years of experience covering the NFL and College Football. For him, providing historical angles relevant to the story is important, as gives the reader useful information and help them relate it to the present. He thrives to keep the content unique rather than just a bland reporting of facts. Fact-checking and researching relevant information as per the headline and context is of utmost importance to him. Prasen hates clickbait or misleading the reader.
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