By now, the name Leonard Fournette should be a household name. You’ve seen the highlights, you’ve heard the hype. Fournette has simply taken the college football world by storm. Coming out of High School, Fournette was dubbed, “The Next Adrian Peterson.” Many lofty comparisons get tossed around all over the sports world, and only a select few ever live up to these high standards. Fournette is one of these select few.
The first exposure I ever had regarding Fournette was in an article on Bleacherreport.com a few years ago. The article, much like the rest of the internet proclaimed him as the next best thing and that he was poised to take over college football. As I perused through the article, I decided to take all this praise and glorification about this up-and-coming athlete with a grain of salt, as generous praises like these seem to be thrown around way too often.
Every year there seems to be an athlete who is unfairly labeled as the savior of his respective sport and has to go on through the careers living up to impossible expectations. After finishing this article, I decided I was going to pay close attention to this "next big thing" and see if he actually panned out. Fournette would go on to graduate high school in 2014 and lineup as Lousiana State University's (LSU) starting RB in his freshmen year. To no one's surprise, he was the real deal. He ran faster than everyone, looked bigger, he was almost impossible to tackle. Simply put, he looked like a man among boys.
Fast forward to this year. Four games into Fournette's sophomore campaign, he has looked imhuman. At this point, he has dominated to the point that he could probably sit out the rest of the season and the Heisman Trophy could still end up in his trophy case. After witnessing Fournette's dominance, the age-old question regarding the NFL draft has resurfaced; Should college players be allowed to enter the NFL draft after two seasons? The NFL currently requires players to be at their respective universities for three years in total (including redshirt year) before one can enter the NFL draft. Fournette is in the midst of his sophomore season, so this is where the problem arises.
In the NBA and the MLB we have seen may great athletes make the transition either directly from High School or minimal time spent on the college (or minor league in many cases in baseball) level. So why hasn't the NFL taken action on this topic? The logical answer here is the level of physicality that changes with each level of football is much more intense than other sport. I am a believer that football isn't simply just a contact sport, but a "collision sport." The amount of physical strain and damage that your body takes in football is horrifying and many argue that allowing players to enter the NFL after only a couple of seasons of college football under a player's belt is going to do more harm than good.
While this argument can be applied to most individuals, Fournette is a special case. Much like the great player he is compared to, Adrian Peterson, Fournette is simply a physical specimen whose talents equate to his god-given physical abilities. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of college athletes around the country and the world, regardless of sport, can be classified as "freaks of nature" or physical specimen because of their heightened athletic ability, but very few can be classified in this special category. Fournette is approaching the realm of the Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders of the world. He is a once in a generation talent and players like him should not be restricted to stay in college for any longer than he needs to be.
Football is an extremely dangerous sport, this is no secret. The chances of a player attaining a serious injury is very much a reality each time they set foot on the field, so this is why the system needs an overhaul. Players risk their lives out on the field each and every week and do not reap the benefits from their athletic ability while on the college football level, while the universities collect millions and millions of dollars. These young men are seen as profit and money opportunities rather than the human beings that they are. After hearing of the numerous deaths of so many NFL players who had some sort of neural damage due to the repeated collisions they faced should be enough of a warning to what these players who have NFL aspirations are potentially facing when they decide to hang it up.
At the end of the day, when you reach a certain level in the sports world, it becomes a business. In real estate, the more wear-and-tear that a property accumulates slowly decreases the value. The same goes for these athletes. I, for one, am tired of hearing of the NFL and the NCAA restricting these athletes of rightfully entering the draft and getting the paychecks and benefits that they deserve. Many of these athletes come from poor socioeconomic backgrounds and are using football as a vessel to change their situation.
Just let these kids go pro.
Fournette is special and is the only player right now that really deserves this kind of attention, but trust and believe me when I say, he won't be the last.
