When we think of young players transitioning from amateur athlete to professional athlete, we focus on their abilities. Can they hit a curveball? Can they dunk a basketball? Can they catch a football? There is no doubt that these are important questions to ask, since these amateurs are about to attempt to make a living playing a professional sport. However, we never think of the lives of these guys off the field. While we see them in the spotlight, the reality is that many of them are not always in the spotlight. These are young kids becoming adults just like all of us fans have become. That is why when I heard of a new program being instituted by the Indianapolis Colts, I was both surprised and pleased.
The NFL used to have a rookie symposium that was held for all drafted players. This was basically a crash course in life off the field for an NFL player. However, the league did away with this course and while it may have seemed like a bad idea at the time, I think in the long run it will actually end up being a good thing.
The first flaw with the symposium was that it was only for rookies that were drafted. NFL teams have 53 players on their active rosters each week, as well as players on injured lists and practice squads. After seven rounds of the draft (including compensatory picks), we had 253 players drafted in 2016. Divide 253 by the number of teams in the league (32), and you get an average of just under eight drafted players per team. So if the league held the rookie symposium for all of those players, then about eight rookies on each team would get the league's lesson on life as a professional.
That is great, right? Not so fast. The rookie program that the Colts just held was for 30 rookie players. That means that they were bringing in 22 players as rookies that would not have been invited to the league symposium.
Again, let's take a look at the math. To make it even, I will say that each team will bring in an average of 20 undrafted rookies this year. 20 multiplied by 32 is 640. Once again, to make it even, let's round down to 600. That means that there will be 600 young men who have spent their entire lives working at just a shot in the NFL entering the league in 2016.
I know this is a lot of numbers, and I am by no means a mathematics major, but I want to use the numbers to drive my point home. 600 is a very, very big number in this case. While the majority of these guys completed at least some college credits, it is likely that, for better or worse, they were much more focused on football than they were on going to class. Football had most likely been their main focus since they were in middle school.
From what I can find, about 20% of the players in the NFL were not drafted. That means that prior to this season, 20% of the league did not have to attend this rookie symposium. That is why the fact that the symposium no longer takes place, and rookie initiation into the league is left up to each individual team is something that I think benefits everyone in the long run. Those 600 undrafted players now have a chance to at least get some sort of education about what it is like to be a professional athlete.
The fact that the Colts just held a course on dining etiquette is easy to laugh at. Why do these big football players need to know about which fork is used to eat a salad or which side of the plate your water glass is on at a restaurant? And in reality, most of them probably do not need to know that. But the Colts' course was more than just dinner table etiquette. It was about how to handle bringing in paychecks the size of which they have likely never seen before. It was about how to deal with family and friends after you made this money. It was about the positives and negatives of media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. It may seem meaningless, but it really has a lot of meaning. When we think back to the night of the draft and the Laremy Tunsil fiasco, young men should realize that these are lessons are invaluable, no matter how petty they seem.
Another reason I like the fact that each team now is able to conduct its own rookie introduction course is that each individual team can tailor its course to the market they are in. Since I already mentioned Tunsil, I will use his as an example. He is a first round draft pick who will be coming into millions of dollars and thrown into a life in Miami. Imagine all of the temptations that come along with that. 99.9% of young men in their early 20's would blow that money faster than they would ever think possible. However, since Tunsil now has the responsibility of representing a multi-million dollar franchise and a multi-billion dollar enterprise, he needs to learn how to handle himself in a respectable manner. These team-tailored programs can educate him and all of Miami's other rookies about these responsibilities in a detailed and structured manner.
Now, let's look at the possible life of a rookie joining a franchise at the other end of the lifestyle spectrum. Shaq Lawson was drafted 19th overall by the Buffalo Bills. Like Tunsil, he will still have the pressure of being a first round pick weighing on his soldiers. However, playing your home games in Buffalo is much different than playing your home games in Miami. Therefore, the fact that the Bills can develop their own rookie program not only helps him and Buffalo's other rookie players, but it helps the Bills organization as well.
Teams can teach these young players about whatever they feel is necessary based upon the life of becoming a professional athlete. Sure, dinner table manners are nice, but for a guy like Shaq Lawson who went to college in South Carolina, he should be able to learn more about life in Buffalo. Obviously, it snows a ton there. Maybe there are routes and roads to take during bad weather that will get Lawson to practice faster. Maybe there are areas of the city to live where he can be surrounded by a larger percentage of younger people. I don't know, and he most likely does not know either. The Buffalo Bills organization does know though. That is why they need to educate these rookies about things like that. It may seem insignificant to me or you, but for these kids who will now be making a living in completely foreign territory, it is extremely significant.
I do not want to sound like someone that thinks each and every rookie that enters the NFL is completely clueless about life off the field. I am sure that plenty of them will have no problem adjusting to life as a professional. However, I like that teams can now provide much more useful guidance for them than what a generic rookie symposium did. As is the case with any sort of class or program, there will be many people who learn from them and there will be many people who find them completely meaningless. How these young men decide to handle these programs is only up to them.
It is easy to view the NFL as a monopoly that treats its players as nothing more than disposable income that can be endlessly mixed and matched in whatever way the league deems fit. In many ways, I could not argue that fact. In this case though, I am glad to see that the league is providing some guidance to its youngest players. The players may be nothing more than commodities, but any sort of real-life education they can provide them with helps everyone in the long run. Maybe the league has one less off-field issue to deal with, and maybe some kid who never makes a roster has a better understanding of life off the football field. In this case, I give the league, as well as each franchise that takes advantage of this opportunity, credit for doing what is best for all parties involved.
Daily Diamondbacks Update: After sweeping the Phillies in four games, Arizona won again last night in Toronto, and the five-game winning streak is the longest of the season. Robbie Ray faces off against J.A. Happ this afternoon as the Diamondbacks look to make it six in a row in a very rare visit above the border. And as a side note, if you have never seen Kevin Pillar play center field, then you are cheating yourself. The guy is a human highlight reel, and he made another spectacular grab yesterday.
Daily Giants Update: We still have over a month until training camp opens, so right now it is just preseason prognostication mode. If you are even a casual Giants fan, you know that predicting how the team plays makes winning the lottery seem easy. Hope for the best, and expect the unexpected. That is the life of a Giants fan in 2016.
Daily NBA Update: Unlike the NFL, the NBA wastes no time in getting the offseason underway following the completion of the season, as the draft is already tomorrow night. The 76ers have the first overall pick and have reportedly already informed LSU forward Ben Simmons that they will choose him, and that means it is likely that Brandon Ingram will go second overall to the Lakers. The Celtics pick third overall, and it seems like that is where the drama will really begin. Big names have been mentioned as possible draft day trade targets, and with free agency opening right after the draft, we could see a whole lot of big names on the move. It should be an exciting offseason for the NBA.
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