Draft Eligibility Quotes

When should a college athlete turn pro? Not until he has earned all he can in college as an amateur.

In a given year, there may be two or three NFL-ready quarterbacks at the college level. In another year, there literally may be zero.

I took an interest in the Civil Rights Movement. I listened to Martin Luther King. The Vietnam War was raging. When I was 18, I was eligible for the draft, but when I went to be tested, I didn't qualify.

If the NFL can keep getting away with forcing players to wait three years out of high school before they're drafted - three! - the NCAA should be made to do away with its rules against paying players beyond room, board and tuition. I'm not talking about some token, $2,000-a-year 'spending money' stipend for every player.

I don't want players coming in from the college level that are either trying to avoid a suspension, declare themselves ineligible on their own, hire an agent and decide, 'I'm going to enter into the NFL.'

The NCAA model is outdated. If Steve Serby's a great player in high school, and an agent wants to represent you and wants to advance you money as a loan based on the fact that you're gonna be a high draft choice, so be it.

Guys are coming into the league a little more mature when they take the three or four years in college.

The N.F.L.'s rule on underclassmen should be abolished, and the N.B.A. should be discouraged from adding an age limit.

If you're an adult, if you are eligible to be drafted and vote, then there's a certain amount of decision-making power, and I think we have to be respectful of that.