NFL players union taking neutral stance on college players attending draft

To go or not to go, that is the dilemma facing the NFL draft's top prospects.

Should they accept the league's all-expenses-paid invitation to attend the draft next month in New York with their family, or should they show loyalty to the locked-out brethren they soon will be joining and tell Roger Goodell to take a long walk off a short stage?

NFL Players Association officials insist they have not told the prospects or their agents not to go, but they also haven't urged them to go have a good time, either. They're doing that let-your-conscience-be-your-guide thing.

"If they and their families want to go up there, they're welcome to do that," George Atallah, the NFLPA's assistant executive director for external affairs, told reporters last night after participating in a sports law panel discussion at Rutgers-Camden. "Anything the players want to do that weekend is up to them and their families."

The players association initially had suggested the possibility of renting out a separate ballroom and inviting the top prospects over there. But they took a lot of criticism for that idea and wisely abandoned it.

"We're not doing a competing event,'' Atallah said. "We're not doing something on Thursday night or Friday night competing with the NFL's [draft] events. The decision was made as an association not to do that. As far as we're concerned, not end of story. But the boycott issue was never an issue.''

Still, they are weighing their words carefully when asked what they want the invited prospects to do.

"We're not saying to them not to go [to the draft]," Atallah said. "We've never said that. We're not saying that. We were just encouraging them to understand the business situation they were in. In the same way we tell former players [to] understand what the business context of football is, it's the same message to active players. It's the same message to prospective players.

"It just so happens that 50 million people watch the NFL draft, so there's a lot of interest in what happens. And if the only thing that fans can see is a sense of business as usual, you know, like, 'We're locked out. We can't work out at the facility. We can't talk to our coaches. But the draft still is going to happen. So everything is OK.' "

Baltimore Ravens cornerback Domonique Foxworth, who is a member of the NFLPA's executive committee, also participated in last night's panel discussion.

During the discussion, he was asked about the controversy involving the prospects, and he indicated he would never try to persuade a young player lucky enough to be invited to New York for the draft not to go.

But talking to reporters later, he was much more reluctant to offer his opinion on whether the players should attend the draft.

"I just don't want my statement to skew the decision of any young guys," he said. "So I would rather not say."

He did say he wouldn't hold it against any player who accepted the league's invitation to attend the draft.

"Absolutely not. I love those guys. They're gonna be a part of the family no matter what decision they make."

Added Atallah: "I'm not sure we encouraged them to do anything. I think we've always said to the players and the agents, just be educated [about] what's going on in the business of football. It's up to them to make the best decision possible.

"Clearly, I've gone on the record and other officials have gone on the record with a sense of bewilderment that prospective players have been asked to accept a rookie wage scale and meet with a group of people that they can't negotiate contracts with and they've essentially locked them out. It's just confusing."