Does Lawrence Taylor have any more collegiate eligibility?
It is an improbable, but not totally outlandish, question to ask in this NIL era at a time when there are dueling court decisions involving college football.
Browns rookie tight end Dae’Quan Wright, who originally signed an NFL contract with the Eagles but was picked up on waivers by the Browns, has been in NFL camps since earlier this month. He and his agents asked the Browns to waive him last weekend so that he could rejoin his college head coach Lane Kiffin, who is in his first season at LSU.
Wright could become the first player to play in college after being on an NFL roster.
A judge in Louisiana earlier this month issued a court decision that grants 30 former college players an extra year of eligibility and the opportunity to accept an NIL deal and return to the college campus. Several of those players, including Wright, have been on NFL rosters and in NFL camps. However, after the Louisiana court decision, they entered the NCAA transfer portal with the potential to return to college football.
Confused yet? A federal appeals court in Colorado last Friday issued a decision preventing all athletes, who entered school in the 2022-23 academic year and played four straight seasons, from automatically being able to return for a fifth season. However, that federal decision did not affect state cases such as Wright’s in Louisiana.
Is this a win-win for major college coaches such as Kiffin? Not all of them feel that way.
“I think there are a lot of negatives involved around this,” says Oregon head coach Dan Lanning. “If you invite someone who has been in an NFL camp to join your team, that means you’re kicking somebody else off to meet roster limits. I don’t think that’s fair to the young players who have worked all spring and summer to put themselves in position to be ready to play for our team. Once you get to the NFL, to me, you’re in the NFL. You don’t get the opportunity to come back.”
North Carolina Coach Bill Belichick has a different take on the issue.
“We’ve looked at a number of these players,” says Belichick, the second-year college coach. “If it works, it works. We’re always open to anything that will help the team.”
We at NFL Alumni will continue to monitor the situation since some of you have sons and/or grandsons who may be affected. A reminder that the first full week of NCAA college games begins on Thursday, September 3.
