Bad Move Bruh!

"Yeah I know, that didn't make too much sense!"

I watched the e60 documentary yesterday of Jake Locker's decision to stay at the University of Washington this past season. He passed up the opportunity after his junior year, which would've been the 2009 season, to go to the NFL. That sounds very admirable on the surface to come back for his senior season until you find out that he was projected to be the first overall pick in the draft. Normally kids stay in school to improve their draft status like going from a potential 2nd or 3rd round pick to a 1st round pick.
You can't get any better than the #1 overall pick in the draft. He says that he did it out of loyalty to the program and the community etc. Again that sound admirable but it doesn't make an ounce of sense. The only reason that we go to college in the first place is to prepare ourselves to get a piece of paper that will allow us to apply for certain jobs that we wouldn't get the opportunity to apply for without it.

By him being a football player and having the opportunity to go to the professional ranks and that is the piece of paper for lack of a better word. The reason I'm all over the guy about it is because he had such a bad senior year and now he'll be lucky to get drafted in the first round according to draft expert Mel Kiper.

What does that mean? It means that by staying in school an additional year it's going to cost him about $50 million. The first pick in last years draft was Sam Bradford out of Oklahoma, who only moved up because Locker decided to stay, signed a 6 year $78 million deal with $50 million guaranteed. I wrote an article earlier this year about Andrew Luck's dumb decision to stay at Standford entitled "The Educated Idiot" Staying in School Makes No Sense! where I broke down the financial impact of that decision. Believe me I do my homework before I just blurt out things unlike most people. 

Matt Leinart did the same thing in 2005 by staying at USC after winning multiple national titles and winning the Heisman Trophy because he said that he enjoyed school. He was only taking a ballet class that last year. What a complete waste of time! He could've taken that final class during the spring semester the following year after getting paid if he wanted to finish school. Instead, he stayed and was picked tenth overall by the Arizona Cardinals in 2006.
He then had the nerve to hold out of camp for more money. This guy lost about $25 to 30 million dollars by staying in school and now he isn't even on an NFL roster. JaMarcus Russell is in the same boat but he was the first pick in the 2007 draft and signed a $61 million contract with $32 million guaranteed. So even though he's currently not on a NFL roster he got his money up front. Without the league having a Collective Bargaining Agreement right now there isn't any free agency so they can't sign with a team if they wanted to. That's why you have to take the money when it's on the table.

 Listen people, the 1st pick in the draft is the highest you can possibly go and that means the most money. Why stay in school if you can't get any better than #1? That's basic math!

Locker says that he did it because of his loyalty to the school and his community. We'll... you can be a heck of a lot more loyal to them when you've got $50 million guaranteed to help build a community center, buy equipment for the kids to workout or help the impoverished etc. How many people from his home town of Ferndale WA. will be able to help him if he falls on his face when the average income is $35K? People have their own lives to deal with.

Jake says that it has never been about the money because he turned down a $2 million contract from major league baseball coming out of high school. However, his upside was in football so it sounded better than it actually was. Until it's free to live in America it's always about the money. Legal money that is!


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Jay Graves
 Twitter: @jaygravesreport