Waivers for SA Athletes to serve AFTER pro sports career

I have a feeling that this is just another off the cuff comment made by the President while playing to his audience of the day. Reading that the Pentagon has heard nothing about this leads me to think that nothing will come of this.
 
As long as they serve the time they agreed to, I don't have an issue with it. There have been old Lts for a long time.
 
why not just switch from D1 to D3 athletics? Would seem a more appropriate level of sports to the mission of the service academies - if you asked me which nobody did.

That said President Trump is Commander in Chief and really how many guys would this ever really apply to? In the end one way or the other isn't really going to matter all that much
 
I'm going to assume this is primarily for the football, since those careers are the shortest. NFL draft rules are complicated. Obama had this on a case-by-case basis.....seemed kind of unfair. Not even sure how that could be decided case-by-case, Trump just wants to leveled the playing field. Keenan Reynolds comes to mind, and has pretty much been a wash-out in the NFL. I can't think of anyone else except Roger Staubach, who did a tour in Vietnam and completed his contract. I don't think the SA's should be involved in D1 athletics. Yawn.
 
BlueBulldog said:
why not just switch from D1 to D3 athletics? Would seem a more appropriate level of sports to the mission of the service academies - if you asked me which nobody did.

That said President Trump is Commander in Chief and really how many guys would this ever really apply to? In the end one way or the other isn't really going to matter all that much
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The fact is, a lot of young student athletes choose to go to one of the academies because it is very likely the only Division I scholarship they receive (or certainly the best academic opportunity). Obviously, there are exceptions where a student athlete has multiple D1 offers and chooses a SA, but if a move was made to D2 or D3, the academies would lose a lot of strong potential applicants/candidates.
 
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/wh...demy-sports-duty-waiver-pro-athletes-n1002406

"They’ll serve their time after they’re finished with professional sports." - President Trump

Not sure this is such a great idea, or that it would even be effective. Waiting a few years has worked out well for a small number (Roger Staubach, David Robinson, etc) but I assume most any recruit who is good enough to eventually play in the NFL or NBA is probably not looking to serve in the military AFTER a pro career.

Imaging Roger Staubach retiring in 1980 then having to serve as a 38 year old ensign?
 
Imagine the publicity (read as more $) the USN and USNA would get if they had more "Staubachs" to brag about. I'm sure the USNA tour guides would like to stop by other athletes on the Hall of Fame wall as well. :) Not saying I support it or not, just thinking of the different motivations.
 
I merged the two threads discussing this topic.

Stealth_81
 
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Wouldn't it be possible for an athlete to reimburse the school and not serve? Kind of like dropping out in 1C year? Of course, I probably have no idea what I'm talking about.
 
I guess I don’t get the heartburn with letting someone play pro sports if they’re going to come back to serve afterwards (not just buying out of their obligation). We allow ENS/2LTs to go straight to grad school at Stanford or wherever else before serving. We train aviators to be the best in the world and then send them to do a staff tour or run an admin department on a boat somewhere. I’ve been watching The Pacific tv series and back in WWII they pulled heroic Marines off the battlefield to travel around the States selling war bonds instead of fighting like they were trained for. Billy Hurley had a lot of good publicity on the PGA tour a couple years ago, which was after serving, but the storylines would be quite a bit different if he was actually in the reserves awaiting service and didn’t take a few years off his golf training. Lots of examples of people being trained for one thing but being asked to do something else because there is value in it for the military at large. Great storylines, great publicity.
 
321pilot said:
I guess I don’t get the heartburn with letting someone play pro sports if they’re going to come back to serve afterwards (not just buying out of their obligation). We allow ENS/2LTs to go straight to grad school at Stanford or wherever else before serving.
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1-2 years of grad school is far different than the length of a football career. We also extract an additional commitment for the grad school.

We train aviators to be the best in the world and then send them to do a staff tour or run an admin department on a boat somewhere.
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And again we extract an additional commitment.

I’ve been watching The Pacific tv series and back in WWII they pulled heroic Marines off the battlefield to travel around the States selling war bonds instead of fighting like they were trained for.
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I would have called it helping the war effort on the home front.
Billy Hurley had a lot of good publicity on the PGA tour a couple years ago, which was after serving, but the storylines would be quite a bit different if he was actually in the reserves awaiting service and didn’t take a few years off his golf training. Lots of examples of people being trained for one thing but being asked to do something else because there is value in it for the military at large. Great storylines, great publicity.
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Personally I think there is enough publicity. There is no lack of excellent qualified candidates applying to the service academies. And there is enough publicity from the Army-Navy game. Just my 2 cents.
 
USCGA 97 said:
Imagine the publicity (read as more $) the USN and USNA would get if they had more "Staubachs" to brag about. I'm sure the USNA tour guides would like to stop by other athletes on the Hall of Fame wall as well. :) Not saying I support it or not, just thinking of the different motivations.
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what do the service academies need with money, they essential have all the money in the world not quite but still
 
321pilot said:
I guess I don’t get the heartburn with letting someone play pro sports if they’re going to come back to serve afterwards (not just buying out of their obligation). We allow ENS/2LTs to go straight to grad school at Stanford or wherever else before serving. We train aviators to be the best in the world and then send them to do a staff tour or run an admin department on a boat somewhere. I’ve been watching The Pacific tv series and back in WWII they pulled heroic Marines off the battlefield to travel around the States selling war bonds instead of fighting like they were trained for. Billy Hurley had a lot of good publicity on the PGA tour a couple years ago, which was after serving, but the storylines would be quite a bit different if he was actually in the reserves awaiting service and didn’t take a few years off his golf training. Lots of examples of people being trained for one thing but being asked to do something else because there is value in it for the military at large. Great storylines, great publicity.
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Sending them off to the pros is whole lot different than sending them to different duty assignments.

They don't anymore "great publicity" or storylines. We're spending upward of $400k to educate professional sailors, not act as an incubator for those that want to play pro sports. This really is a bad idea: Yeah, let's allocate 50 or 60 slots a year to would be pro's, let them serve after (never going to happen as they'll find a hundred reasons to nowhere not to do it) all in the name of what exactly? Either you're going to be a military school to train a professional officer corps or you're not.

The old timers are right...the place is starting to look more LIKE college than NOT college every day with silliness like this if it ever passes and pray it doesn't.
 
Sydney C. said:
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--- Either you're going to be a military school to train a professional officer corps or you're not.---
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This.

Back in the day maybe even as late as the 70's Div 1 sports and training for military service seem to have been compatible but with the overwhelming dominance 'tier 1' sports like football and basketball seem to have in the life of their athletes I think the incompatibility has grown to the point of being untenable

I think the true solution is to raise the status of the club sports and to down shift to Div 3 sports where the military aspect of the school can remain the focus

I shall yield the soap box now ...
 
So I guess the next step would be for the SA's to further lower admission requirements for athletes since there would likely be a different level of athlete available to recruit with this waiver in play. The SA's need to stick to what they do best, train officers to serve in our military not sacrifice what they stand for in order to win an extra football game or 2.

The Roger Staubach's and David Robinson's are once in a generation talents that happened to attend SA's but even in those cases they had a clear understanding of what they were signing up for and probably would have gained appointment even if they were not elite athletes.

Hopefully the President rethinks this decision before taking action on it..
 
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