SFinAustin,

Its about trade restriction (ie: You can\'t make rules to disqualify a Class of persons from employment IF you are the only buyer of services b/c you are preventing the trade of services.

SO the NFL is preventing all persons (including Clarrett) b/c he is less than 3 years removed from Highschool from selling his service to the NFL b/c of their rule.

Clarrett and everyone in his Class have no other comparable buyer to sell their services to.


This is not about civil rights. Rt to drink, vote, etc. This is about trade. The market. And the US Anti-Trust laws that prevents businesses from restricting trade by establishing certain rules that arbitrarily limit trade.

...so lemme ask you...
..since the judge wants to play real world with the NFL...
what\'s the difference between requiring a person be removed 3 years from High School and requiring a person to have say, 3 years of experience in a specific trade in order to be considered for a job?
How about educational restrictions? Why can\'t you be allowed to work in, say, the FBI, without a college degree? No one offers the same job as the FBI in the US.. right? So how can they disqualify a whole class, i.e., people without college degrees, from selling their trade?

Also, again, the NFL rule is a requirement for entering the draft, NOT to be employed by the NFL. As a player, you can sign to any team you can get into regardless... There are no restrictions to free agents for that matter.
Entering the draft does NOT guarantee a job. So if no one drafts Clarett, then what?
What about all of the other players who enter the draft and don\'t get drafted?

..all in all, this is just the ruling of a judge trying to feel mighty powerful he\'s sticking it to the NFL.. probably an ice capades fan...