National Football League

Goodell can make Pryor share tab for mess he left

Published Aug. 17, 2011 5:32 a.m. ET

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NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is the last man standing between Terrelle Pryor and the NCAA version of yet another perfect crime.

The ex-Ohio State quarterback wants the commissioner to pencil him in on the league's supplemental draft list because, well, for no other apparent reason than Pryor is used to getting what he wants.

And what he wants now is to play in the pros for real cash on Sundays, instead of the chump change, trinkets and discount tattoos he had to settle for playing Saturdays in Columbus, Ohio. We get that. Here's hoping Goodell does, too, and that after postponing the supplemental draft scheduled for Wednesday to give Pryor's case his full consideration, he says ''no.''

Whoever first said cheaters never prosper apparently didn't follow college football. It happens all the time.

Sometimes, as in Pryor's case, it's the players who game the system, load up on ''improper'' or ''impermissible benefits,'' and then flee to the pros before the NCAA enforcers can drop the velvet hammer on the schools they played for. That's what reportedly happened at Miami - and not for the first time, either - where a jailed former booster used some of the proceeds from a $930 million Ponzi scheme to grease the palms of top-shelf players for most of the past decade. It may also explain why Cam Newton chose to wing passes for the Carolina Panthers this season instead of Auburn, which could still get stung because of the ''pay-for-play'' allegations Newton left in his wake and where, not coincidentally, perhaps, he had a season of eligibility left.

Then again, it's hard not to root for the kids in plenty of these cases, if only because everybody else involved in big-time college sports - the schools, their coaches, athletic departments and TV partners - is on the take. The NCAA didn't need to invite Division I university presidents to a retreat last week to remind them the integrity of the sports and even the reputations of the schools they lead are threatened when a newspaper clipping service would have sufficed.

After all, the same bunch has been ignoring calls for reform for three decades, largely because serving as the de facto minor league for the NFL has turned out to be a very lucrative business. Giving university presidents a nice hotel room and free meals for a few days is hardly inducement enough to make them listen now.

Goodell, on the other hand, can make a statement by denying Pryor eligibility for the supplemental draft, forcing him to wait until the regularly scheduled 2012 NFL draft.

Not surprising, Pryor's hyperactive uberagent, Drew Rosenhaus, said that would be a tragedy. Hearing him make a case for his client, you'd think Pryor accomplished everything at Ohio State short of solving world hunger.

A quick sampling:

''I'm a firm believer after 25 years of experience that Terrelle Pryor will be a great - not a good quarterback - a great quarterback in the National Football League. That he is going to be a star.''

''I expect him to be a first-round pick in the supplemental draft. The league needs quarterbacks. Are you kidding me, the middle round for this guy?''

''For anyone who questions his arm strength, gimme a break. They couldn't hang onto his football.''

Frankly, it's hard to imagine that Rosenhaus believes much of that himself. Pryor was a pretty good quarterback at Ohio State, going 31-4 in three seasons and setting or tying a handful of school records in the process. But he's got questionable arm strength and his best asset, an ability to run the ball, will only get him flattened in the pros.

That's why plenty of scouts project him as a receiver instead of a quarterback, and almost no club is likely to risk drafting Pryor until the third round - at the earliest.

The history of the supplemental draft is such that most of the great players who came into the league through the side door, did so during the 1980s. Drafting has become such a science since those days that exactly one impact player - Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jamal Williams - has arrived in the league via that route over the past 20 years.

Plus, Pryor is weighed down by questions about his character, a problem that Rosenhaus inadvertently hinted at during his infomercial.

''In term of his work ethic, he's going to get it in. He's going to get coached up, he's going to develop and he's going to put on a show.''

Ohio State, meanwhile, could be paying for Pryor's development in Columbus for several years to come. There's a buzz inside the NCAA offices that the enforcement committee, finally up to speed on the scam former coach Jim Tressel covered up by lying, won't be satisfied with the self-punishment OSU offered and will impose the same kind of harsh measures - including the crippling loss of scholarships handed out in the Southern California mess touched off by Reggie Bush's glad-handing.

Handing back trophies, taking down banners and deleting a few pages from the media guide won't get the school's attention, let alone the next kid tempted to cash in early on his pro potential.

But the loss of scholarships could hamstring the Buckeyes long enough to get their attention. And a decision by Goodell forcing Pryor to spend another few months waiting for his reward will make the rule-breakers on both sides of the recruiting equation understand the arm of the law just got a little bit longer.

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Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke(at)ap.org. Follow him on http://twitter.com/JimLitke.

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