Well, the long, winding road to professional football for our man Terrelle Pryor has come to end. T-Peezy is coming to an NFL stadium near you.
Sort of…
After months of back and forth between Pryor, his lawyers, agent Drew Rosenhaus and the NFL, the former Ohio State quarterback was made eligible for next Monday’s NFL Supplemental Draft. But there is a catch: According to a memo sent out by the league, Pryor won’t be allowed to practice or play with his team until after the fifth game of the season. Interestingly, according to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, Pryor is allowed however to sit in on meetings with his team. He will also be allowed to play in any remaining preseason games after he is drafted.
“… Pryor made decisions that undermine the integrity of the eligibility rules for the NFL Draft. Those actions included failing to cooperate with the NCAA and hiring an agent in violation of NCAA rules, which resulted in Ohio State declaring him ineligible to continue playing college football.
“Pryor then applied to enter the NFL after the regular draft. Pryor had accepted at the end of the 2010 college football season a suspension for the first five games of the 2011 season for violating NCAA rules. Pryor will be ineligible to practice prior to or play in the first five games of the NFL regular season after he signs.”
With the Supplemental Draft next Monday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Wednesday that Pryor has a fourth to fifth round grade, meaning that whomever selects him will have to give up that corresponding pick in the next NFL Draft (meaning if they use a fourth round pick on him, they will give up that pick in the next NFL Draft).
Already, many are up in arms over the decision on Pryor, with some questioning why the NFL is punishing Pryor for rules he broke in college. Are they basically just transferring over his five-game suspension from Ohio State into the pros?
Me? I don’t think it’s quite that simple.
Remember, that just because you leave school doesn’t necessarily eligible for the Supplemental Draft. In most cases it has to be because you weren’t eligible, academically or otherwise. With Pryor, the situation is clouded by the fact that when he left Ohio State, it was presumed to be under his own terms. Only later did Athletics Director Gene Smith note that Pryor wouldn’t have played for Ohio State at all this year, and has been disassociated with the school for five years.
The point here though is right at the beginning of that statement: “Pryor made decisions that undermine the integrity of the Supplemental Draft.”
This has nothing to do with what happened at Ohio State; in actuality, I think the NFL could care less. This has everything to do with Pryor trying to back-door his way into the Supplemental Draft, and make the rules as he goes. This is the NFL’s way of making sure that this Terrelle Pryor doesn’t set a precedent for the next Terrelle Pryor. In other words, you can’t just arbitrarily leave school and expect to be bailed out by the NFL. Not without some sort of punishment anyway.
Beyond that, I just don’t have any sympathy for Pryor. By all accounts, the guy has had everything handed to him in life since he was a two-sport star in high school. From everything I’ve read, no one- not coaches, not teammates, not even Jon Gruden– have ever told him no before. Is it the worst thing in the world that the NFL stood up to him and said “Sorry Terrelle, you don’t get to make the rules around here. We do.”
And let’s not forget one things folks, it’s five, freakin’ games! People are acting like the NFL just gave Pryor a lifetime ban. The guy is going to be back in pads, and on the sideline before Halloween. I’m supposed to feel bad because he can’t play football for six weeks? When he broke the rules, got caught, was asked to leave, then tried to make his own rules at the next place he showed up? Give me a break.
Not to mention that as my colleague Tom Perry points out, it’s not as if Pryor was going to see the field within those first few weeks anyway, especially without a training camp. As Tom mentioned, this is a “public perception,” penalty, in every sense of the word. T-Peezy, will be back on the sideline doing T-Peezy things before you know it.
Regardless, the NFL has it’s ruling and in, and whether you like it or not, it’s final. The suspension might not be totally fair, but as my parents used to always tell me, “Life isn’t fair.”
It may have taken Terrelle Pryor 22 years to learn that, but it’s about damn time.
Crystal Ball Run’s Tom Perry contributed to this article
Follow Crystal Ball Run on Twitter @CrystalBallRun
