jeff (02/25/83)
It is a sad day for professional and college football. Herschel Walker
has signed with New Jersey of the USFL. This extremely selfish move
by the New Jersey club looks great for Walker and the USFL in the short
run, but in the long run it could ruin football! Although I think
Walker is an exceptional player and is fully qualified to play pro
despite having a year of college remaining, his signing will probably
open the door on more signings of juniors and maybe even sophomores
and freshmen. Soon any college player who has a good season will want,
and maybe even expect to play pro. And the USFL will probably sign him
too, to get the jump on the NFL and to keep up with the other USFL teams
that will also be signing college players not in their final year.
The result will be that there will be very few outstanding players left
in college football, which will destroy it both as a training ground and
as a spectator sport. And most of the players who have not played out
their eligibility that play pro would probably be a lot better off with
another year of college ball, so they won't live up to their expectations
in the pros and will probably end up looking for a job after two or three
years and they won't be able to get one because they won't have college
degrees. With pro football's main training ground destroyed, and with
all the top prospects being ruined by turning pro too early, pro football
will also collapse. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm afraid I might not be.
Maybe we won't have to worry anyway, because by spending the big bucks
before it is established, the USFL has probably doomed itself to the
fate of the World Football League. Fortunately, the WFL died before
it could do any damage to football.
One thing I applaud the USFL for is the two-point convert. We have it
in Canadian football and it adds a lot of excitement. If we're lucky,
the NFL will adopt it soon too.
Jeff Richardson