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OPINION
Tuesday, March 8, 1983
The Michigan Daily.
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Walker tackles the
NFL farm system
By Mike Bradley
p Herschel Walker accepted millions of dollars
from the evil new United States Football League
and everyone in the establishment is crying
foul.
The junior running back from Wrightsville,
Georgia and the University of Georgia decided
to ditch his final year of his quest for a college
diploma by walking off with an estimated $4
million.
The subsequent uproar created by the
National Football League and the National
Collegiate Athletic Association was as
deafening as it was ridiculous. The NCAA
maintained that the fledgling football league
had broken a promise by signing the 1982
e Heisman Trophy winner. They were correct.
The league's commissioner, Chet Simmons,
had said that the USFL would not make any ef-
forts to sign collegiate ballplayers who had not
completed their four year stint at the various
M institutions of higher learning.
BUT SIMMONS replied to the charges by
saying the Walker signing was to be the excep-
tion to the rule, and that his league would never
try to sign another underclassman.
The NFL, of course, also cried dirty pool.
They have remained a respectable American
w institution by toeing the line when it comes to
drafting athletes before their classes have
graduated-usually without them. The NFL's
wrath, however, was motivated by two other
reasons.
First, NFL teams will not have the oppor-
tunity to draft, sign, and promote the Great
y
Both the NFL and the NCAA have good
reason to be concerned. The right of an
organization to force an athlete to stay in
school-or rather on campus-for four years is
going to be closely evaluated in the coming
months. There should be no question as to the
result of any ruling on the issue.
IT IS PREPOSTEROUS for anyone to force
an individual to remain in college for four
years before he plays professional football.
There is no rule that stops a sophomore com-
puter engineering student from accepting an
offer from IBM to forego his next two years to
go to work for that organization. There is no
such rule for college basketball players,
either. Likewise, there should be no such rule
preventing a superb quarterback from testing
his talents in the professional ranks after his
second year of college.
These athletes are legal adults who should be
allowed to make their own decisions about their
own futures. The government has deemed
them mature enough to vote, go to war, and (in
some states) be executed for murder. Up
against these important responsibilities, the
decision to give up their education to play foot-
ball does not seem like such a life and death
choice.
Why, then, is the American public so concer-
ned over the decision of a 20-year-old to drop
out of school and get a job? The answer is sim-
ple: Every sports fan in the country knows of
Herschel Walker. They don't know of the computer
whiz.
WALKER WILL spend the rest of his carer
known as "the man who left early." His every
move will be scrutinized based on that-from
his decision to leave the USFL (if that ever
happens) to his choice to run over a linebacker:
instead of around him.
That's the way it goes in sports. Everyone;
wants to hear about the superstar. Herschel
has been in the limelight since he exploded onto
the college footbal scene by shredding Ten-
nessee's secondary for the winning touchdown
in his first collegiate game.
He has been generating millions of dollars for:
the University of Georgia for three years while'
receiving the equivalent of $10,000 a year (thle
cost of his education) in return. It seems only
fair that he should say he is tired of risking his
neck every Saturday for peanuts while
Georgia's athletic department reaps great:
piles of money. :
Let the athletes leave the school when they
want. The computer engineer doesn't stand to:
have his career ruined by a late hit in the fourth .
quarter of a game against Podunck U. The:
football player could lose everything he hopes :
for by turning his knee the wrong way on some
synthetic grass.
The decision to leave college and play.
professional football should be made by thie:
athlete, not by some committee of frustratd,
ex-jocks. Herschel Walker should be commeh-
ded for his challenge to the monster that isE
professional football. In the future, there
should be nothing to stand in the way of a young
man who wants to interrupt his education forfa
career.
B
Bradley is a Daily sports writer.
Herschel, arguably the best player ever to
wear a college football uniform. This is reason
enough to be angry. But there is something a
little bit bigger than even Walker that has the
established league steaming.
WALKER'S EARLY departure from college
could signal the breakdown of the cost-free
farm system that has fed the NFL since its in-
ception. If players leave school when they want
to, be it after their junior or freshman years,
many athletes may see no reason to go to
college to prepare themselves for the big
time.
Thus, the football leagues may have to set up
a farm system, much like major league
baseball, to accommodate the swelling ranks of
potentially able players. The enormous cost
and the loss of a great (free) system make it
obvious why the leagues would not like to do
this.
W i3t htiganu atii
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Sinclair
I
Vol. XCIII, No. 122
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
West German winners
ATO AND PRESIDENT Reagan
received a big boost in the West
German elections Sundayr.but despite-
the conservative victory, it is clear
West Germans are expecting a more
moderate arms control position from
the United States. One American of-
ficial was right on the mark when he
warned, "The biggest danger for us is
too much optimism" regarding smooth
sailing for U.S.-West German
relations.
Conservative Christian Democrat
Helmut Kohl won a convincing victory,
gathering nearly 49 percent of the vote.
Together with the Free Democrats,
who received almost seven percent of
the votes, Kohl intends to steer a
moderate path - supporting
negotiations with the Soviets toward
arms reductions. Kohl also had the for-
tune not to win an outright majority,
thus preventing right-wing Franz Josef
Strauss from getting the foreign af-
fairs portfolio in the new cabinet.
But Reagan cannot take the vote as
an indication that his zero option -
whereby the United States would not
deploy its Pershing II and cruise
missiles in West Germany if the
Soviets would dismantle its equivalent
weapons - is now overwhelmingly
supported by the West Germans.
Public opinion polls conducted
during voting indicate that, as in most
elections anywhere, internal factors
were decisive in the outcome. The big
push to the Christian Democrats over
the past few weeks apparently grew
out of the belief that the conservative
coalition could best stimulate the West
German economy.
And while the pro-American and pro-
NATO parties are firmly in control as a
result of the elections, the ad-
ministration needs to remember that
Kohl has promoted thorough
negotiations on arms reductions before
deploying the new missiles. His tone
has been much more flexible than
Reagan's-toward the Soviets.
In addition, for the first time ever the
anti-NATO Greens got enough votes to
earn some seats in Parliament. Most of
the Greens votes came from the anti-
nuclear young people in the West Ger-
man metropolitan areas, indicating
the strength and resolve of that
movement.
President Reagan has an excellent
opportunity to use the West German
elections to negotiate an equitable
nuclear arms reduction treaty with the
Soviet Union. But he needs to realize
that, though the pro-U.S. parties won
big, a move toward compromise works
best in victory.
PERSONALLY, I PONTi THINK TL'\
OSTENMTATIOUS pISPLAY AND AR KTOCRA TIC
TRAPP'INGS NAVJE A C C W qA puJVMaAcy.
oREAGiAN SOppIN
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------------- '71
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Military research is a big deal
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To the Daily:
From reading Kevin O'Con-
nor's "Protest on military
research overblown" (Daily,
March 3), one would think that
the University is not involved in
research which contributes to the
deadly, if not murderous business
the Pentagon is in. He would also
have us believe that only a small
number of students are somehow
offended by research.
There are many research
projects done by the University
which are military related. Many
professors, faculty, staff, studen-
ts, community groups, and ever-
day people are more than just of-
fended by this research. A group
of 75 professors wrote a letter to
Harold Shapiro and sent a copy
to the Daily, which expressed
their concern about military
research on campus.
They made a reference to the
existing research policy at the
University, which states, "The
University will not enter into or
renew any agreement or con-
tract. or ace'Pnt anv grant. the
it, however, and could be entirely
too flexible if the Board of Regen-
ts votes yes on a new wording
proposal for the policy.
Already, the University does
such research as topographic
map matching by computer
which is the technology used in
the cruise missile guidance
systems. Just completed in
December was contract to
research stealth technology
which makes U.S. aircraft less
visible to radar and used to in-
crease the destructive power of
such marvels as the B-1 bomber.
If they can't see it, you can get it
closer to increase bombing ac-
curacy and destruction potential.
Also being sponsored by the Pen-
tagon in a long term contract to
study BCES, which is a mustard
gas like those used by Germany
in World War I. With these and
other projects like them going on
now, what could we possibly ex-
pect if the wording of the Regen-
ts' policy was changed (diluted)
to ". . . the primary purpose of
whic~h is to destrov huiman life or
freedom. With all the money my position, I'd rather se
available to do military research emotions for humanity rath6
at "one of the greatest research than reasoning for dollars decide
institues in the country," what types of research gets done
professors will not likely take less on the campus of what we all
money to do something they hope will remain one of the
might otherwise consider useful greatest liberal arts and sciencd
and others of us would likely con- institutions in the country.
sider peaceful. -Kevin Leach
Although I feel reasonable in MarchG
Hart campaign on campuse:
To the Daily: sunny Friday afternoon, a year"
I was surprised that the Daily and-a-half before the electio-
did not cover the meeting an- shows that Hart's organization'
nouncing the formation of myidedbthbsatea
Students for Hart. The event was may indeed be the best, at leas,
important not only in that it locally.
marked the birth of an active In 1972, Gary Hart ran Georg
campus group, but also because McGovern's primary compaigl;
of the event's relation to the and helped McGovern to victory
presidential race, over a dozen better-known cady
Senator Gary Hart's (D-Colo.) didates. I hope the Daily will keep
.gorits readers aware . of the:
strategy is to capture the blossoming Hart candidacy, and
Democratic nomination by out- its progress at Michigan.
organizing the other candidates. -Dave KopeC
The gathering of 45 students on a March?
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