Indianapolis Colts general manager Chris Ballard didn’t leave much room for interpretation when asked whether any NFL players had told him they wanted to head back to college.
“No. That’s the stupidest s- I’ve ever heard.”
Ballard delivered that line Tuesday morning at his preseason news conference, then doubled down with a sarcastic take on the idea.
“Your entire life - I know I’ll catch crap for this - you fight to get up to the NFL. OK, but now we’re gonna go back? That makes a lot of freakin’ sense,” the Colts GM said sarcastically.
The question has become a real one around football as college eligibility rules and pro experience collide. NFL linebacker Jack Pyburn recently became the latest player at the center of the debate after saying that returning to LSU for a fifth year of eligibility “was a possibility as a backup option” if he didn’t make the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 53-man roster.
Pyburn was waived by Tampa Bay on Sunday, then claimed by the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday.
His representative had floated the college option a few months earlier, after the NCAA simplified its eligibility rules and essentially gave every athlete five years to play five college seasons. But that change did not apply to fourth-year seniors, including Pyburn, who had just finished their eligibility under the old system. That sparked a wave of lawsuits from members of the 2022 high school class seeking an extra year.
Pyburn was among 30-plus athletes in Louisiana who filed suit and won a temporary restraining order that would allow them to play in college this academic year. To get back into college football, players who have spent time in NFL camps or on preseason rosters would have to terminate their pro contracts and repay any money they earned. Pyburn’s Bucs contract guaranteed him $115,000, including a $15,000 signing bonus.
The NFL has also weighed in. Last week, the league ruled that rookies who sign a pro contract, are cut, and later return to college football will not be eligible to come back to the NFL this season.
They also won’t be allowed to enter the following year’s draft pool. Under that ruling, those players would be treated as free agents who signed and were cut.
Ballard wasn’t the only coach or executive to react with disbelief. Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay was asked about the same issue last week and said, “I feel like I took a freakin’ gummy.
I can’t even comprehend this stuff. It’s wild.”
That comment came as former Ole Miss tight end Dae’Quan Wright prepared to join LSU after a short run in the NFL. Wright spent time with the Philadelphia Eagles as an undrafted free agent before joining the Cleveland Browns.
After being waived by Cleveland, Wright decided to go back to college and signed with LSU following the Louisiana court ruling. He is practicing with LSU this week and could be cleared to play if a judge rules in his favor at a court hearing on Thursday.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, who coached Wright last year and could face him this Saturday when LSU hosts Clemson, called the whole thing embarrassing.
“Rarely am I at a loss for words … it’s kind of embarrassing, honestly,” Swinney said Tuesday. “It’s just embarrassing that that’s where we are.
I don’t blame the kids, trying to take advantage of the system. But it’s embarrassing for college football.
…
“It’s a joke. We’ve got zero rules.
And when you enforce rules, somebody just goes and finds a judge to say you can’t enforce those rules. Never did I feel like I’d be playing in an era like that, but that’s where we are right now.”
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