Cardale Jones should have gone pro.
After quarterbacking Ohio State to the NCAA’s most recent version of the Mythical National Championship Monday night, he had until Thursday to declare his eligibility for the NFL draft.
He decided to go back to school because he doesn’t believe he’s ready for the NFL and he wants to focus on getting his degree.
Jones has NFL scouts confused. He only started three games but they were three of the biggest games in Ohio State history and he won all three.
He’s 6-6, 250 and has a cannon for an arm.
The consensus seems to be that he would have been at least a second round pick. Depending on where in the second round he would go, it would mean anywhere from $750,000 to $4 million in guaranteed money.
Jones is 22. He went to military school after graduating from high school and was red shirted his freshman year. After training camp, he was made Ohio State’s third-string quarterback.
Braxton Miller, who is also an NFL prospect, will return from his season ending injury next season and is expected to be the starter.
Cardale should have gone for the cash.
Forget the degree. He’s majoring in African-American studies.
I haven’t researched it but I’m going to guess that there aren’t a lot of African American Studies graduates making $100,000 a year.
Especially former college football players not playing in the NFL.
If Jones were to get $4 million in guaranteed money, that’s $100,000 a year for 40 years.
If he sits behind Braxton next season, his draft stock will go down. If he had been drafted, he would have sat behind an NFL quarterback and be paid lots of money for doing it.
If the degree is really important to him, there’s nothing preventing him from using his NFL money to pay his tuition.
Jones has a two-year old daughter. A nice NFL signing bonus would allow him to put a nice chunk of money in a trust fund for her and make her a rich woman when she’s 22.
Maybe he’ll beat out Miller for the starting job next season or maybe, after sitting a year, he’ll start in 2017 and play well enough to be a high number one pick.
There’s also just as good a chance that he will see his draft stock fall or he’ll get injured or both. An insurance policy will bring him some major money if he suffers a career ending injury, but falling draft stock could cost him millions.
This should really be a no-brainer.
If Jones were a drama major and Stephen Spielberg called and offered him a million dollars to appear in one of his movies, would anybody suggest that he stay in school, perform in the Ohio State Theatre’s production of Kiss Me Kate and get his degree?
So, please, let’s forget about the degree.
Would a junior majoring in Criminal Justice be wise to turn down a job with the FBI in favor of getting the degree?
Take the job. Use the money you’re paid to pay for tuition.
Cardale Jones’ decision was a football and a football only decision. Nothing wrong with that. It was just the wrong football decision.
But, here’s something that isn’t discussed enough: Did you know that there are two players on this year’s Ohio State hockey team who were drafted by an NHL team?
They didn’t have to make the choice Jones was forced to make. They were drafted, went to NHL training camps and maintained their eligibility while pursuing their degrees.
There are 289 current NCAA hockey players who have been drafted by NHL teams.
What a concept, eh?
Why is amateur purity so much more important for football players?
Pittsburgh ex-TV sportscaster, columnist and talk show host John Steigerwald is the author of the Pittsburgh sports memoir, “Just Watch The Game.” Follow him on Twitter.