Interesting NFL Draft Perspective

I recently watched a program on local television that had sports talk show host Norm Hitzges and four former Dallas Cowboys talking all things Cowboys, past and present. It was a short round table following the Pat Summerall Humble Beginnings Luncheon, benefiting the Austin Street Centre. On the program were Cowboy greats Mel Renfro, Bob Lilly, Don Perkins and Randy White. During their discussion, the conversation turned to the NFL Draft and what each of them thought about the policy of not letting amateur athletes enter the draft until they had been out of high school for 3 years. I found it telling that, to a person, each one of these former professionals made reference to the kids responsibilities to the schools that they were leaving. In all the media hype surrounding the early entries of potential draftees Mike Williams of USC and Maurice Clarett of Ohio State, not much was made of what that meant to their respective football programs. All the talk surrounded the anti-trust suit against the NFL and whether these young players were actually READY to play in the NFL. Not much was made of what losing these players, arguably one of, if not the main cornerstones of their progams might do to the team. Each one of the former Cowboys, in one way or another, expressed their belief that if you say you're going to come and play for a University and they will pay for your education, you need to hold up your end of the bargain. When you are given a scholarship, you sign a letter of commitment. Not a letter of I'll do this until something better comes along. If you are an average student who goes to school and then decides you have found a better path to take, there's no one to tell you you can't or you shouldn't because you're too young or not experienced enough. But you did not sign a letter of commitment. Is that fair to the student athlete? Well, to be revered on Saturdays for playing a game, to be given special treatment in many if not all things you do at the school and to have the OPPORTUNITY to turn your passion into a very lucrative career for yourself means you have to make a few commitments in the process, well.....you be the judge. Instead of looking at who was responsible to whom for what, these four players from a different era showed that in this age of personal entitlement, maybe people need to be more concerned with what they owe than what they deserve.