Word comes from Ohio that Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Troy Smith wants desperately to be drafted by the Cleveland Browns. In the article, high school and college teammate Ted Ginn, Jr. also states his desire to return home to play for the Browns. Both players grew up in the former Mistake By The Lake, and want to go home.
Not many guys are signing up to go to Cleveland, unless there is a truck full of money involved, so these guys definitely want to go home. However, the NFL does not grant territorial rights, and does not have a territorial rights draft. If you're a player, you go where you're drafted, or you go to Canada to play with Ricky Williams for less than $50,000 per year.
The old USFL, in an effort to drum up local interest for its teams, granted territorial rights to its teams. Each team got to claim up to five local colleges, from which it got to draft players, in addition to the regular player draft. For example, the Oklahoma Outlaws claimed Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Tulsa, Arkansas, and Langston (Langston? Go figure..). A team would have right of first refusal for the rights to local players.
This is impossible in the NFL. The NFL doesn't need it, and there is a dearth of major college programs in the Northeast, compared to the South and Southwest. It would also be impossible to fairly distribute college programs around the country. Finally, the colleges would definitely turn into de facto farm clubs for pro teams. Imagine Mack Brown telling recruits that they could play for the Dallas Cowboys after they're finished at Texas.
But, let's daydream a bit. Here is an example of NFL territorial rights, with each franchise owning the rights to players from three universities. Most teams get the rights to players from two or three local schools, but some only get one, with some outlying schools serving as filler. Only Division I-A schools are used, and all BCS conference schools have a pro team claiming the rights to their players. An example is below:
Non-local teams to the franchise are in italics:
NY Giants: UConn, Alabama, Utah
NY Jets: Rutgers, Oklahoma, BYU
New England: Boston College, Texas Tech, Boise State
Buffalo: Buffalo, Syracuse, Oklahoma State
Philadelphia: Penn State, Temple, N.C. State
Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Baylor
Baltimore: Maryland, Wake Forest, East Carolina
Washington: Virginia, Virginia Tech, Memphis
Carolina: Clemson, North Carolina, Duke
Atlanta: Georgia, Georgia Tech, Auburn
Cleveland: Ohio State, Akron, Kent State
Cincinnati: Kentucky, Miami (Ohio), Cincinnati
Detroit: Michigan, Michigan State, Eastern Michigan
Indianapolis: Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame
Tampa Bay: South Florida, Florida State, UCF
Miami: Miami, Florida International, Florida Atlantic
Jacksonville: Florida, Mississippi State, Louisville
Chicago: Illinois, Northwestern, Northern Illinois
Green Bay: Wisconsin, South Carolina, Oregon State
Minnesota: Minnesota, Iowa, Iowa State
St. Louis: Missouri, Arkansas, Tulsa
Kansas City: Kansas, Kansas State, Nebraska
Tennessee: Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Middle Tennessee State
New Orleans: LSU, Tulane, Southern Miss
Houston: Texas A&M, Rice, Houston
Dallas: Texas, TCU, SMU
Denver: Colorado, Colorado State, Wyoming
Arizona: Arizona, Arizona State, New Mexico State
San Diego: San Diego State, USC, UCLA
San Francisco: Stanford, San Jose State, Hawaii
Oakland: California, Fresno State, Nevada
Seattle: Washington, Washington State, Oregon
Once again, there is no need for such a plan, nor is it workable in the NFL. However, it is a way to get Troy Smith and Ted Ginn, Jr. to the Browns, so they can go home to Cleveland, like they wish.
9 comments:
If you're a player, you go where you're drafted, or you go to Canada to play with Ricky Williams for less than $50,000 per year.
Or you have your daddy call a team's owner to demand that they not draft you and a couple of years later the team you and your daddy so badly wanted to avoid makes the playoffs while you're flying to other parts of the country to watch your older brother be in the limelight again.
Maybe Archie has opened up the way for potential players to voice where they want to go in hopes of that swaying their first choice. Almost feels like rush week back in college.
For what it's worth, the Chargers have been better than the Giants for pretty much Eli Manning's whole career. In hindsight, the Mannings are looking pretty dumb, as Eli could be playing with the great L.T. right now.
Or, like pledging some spare fraternity while the Sigma Chis are becoming the coolest group on campus. :-)
Besides, ya gotta look out for CLE!
There's nothing wrong with CLE! :)
I know Archie and Eli are looking dumb now, but it just seemed so dumb. I think Eli's gotta get dogged for that for a while ... daddy's boy.
Have you forgotten Eli Manning and his refusal to go the Chargers??
No, we haven't forgotten about Eli's manipulation of the draft. What goes around comes around, as the Chargers are now a lot better than the Giants, in spite of their playoff loss.
Forget? What do you think my initial rant was about? Maybe this will teach other knuckleheads not to mess with the draft.
The Browns could pick up Troy Smith, Ted Ginn, Jr., and bring back Jim Brown a 25-year old body, and would still suck. They're the Browns!
Cleveland may no longer be the Mistake By The Lake, but the Browns sure are.
That should say Jim Brown with a 25-year old body.
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