Oct 11, 2014 5 min read

The next thing Todd Gurley should sign is an FXFL contract.

In case you haven’t heard, the FXFL is a new professional football league, and it’s tailor-made for a guy like Gurley, who appears to have been a little anxious to start making money for running with a football.

Gurley, a junior at Georgia, is almost universally considered the best running back in the country. He’s 6-1, 220 and he’s averaging – are you ready? – 8.2 yards a carry in college football’s best conference, the SEC.

Apparently, Gurley was studying too hard last year to notice Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M got in a lot of trouble with the NCAA for creating the suspicion he was getting money for his autograph.

Manziel’s “suspension” was for only half a game because the NCAA couldn’t prove he ever received direct payment for signings.

Georgia suspended Gurley indefinitely until the investigation into his alleged violation is completed.

So, here we have a 20-year-old football player who’s averaging more than eight yards a carry, and he might not be able to carry the ball again this season because of a stupid violation of an even dumber rule.

Seems like a perfect time to turn pro.

Unfortunately for Gurley, the NFL has a really stupid rule of its own that prevents guys like him from playing until they are a full three years beyond high school graduation.

In a sane world – one in which there is no pro football monopoly – Gurley would be able to say, “Whoops, I violated a stupid rule. I don’t want to play college football anymore. I’d prefer to be paid for playing, and I think I’m just as ready now as I’m going to be next August.”

The NFL would have you believe this stupid, un-American rule is in the best interest of college student-athletes. You would only believe that if you were as stupid as the rule.

But, watch how the media will focus on Gurley’s stupidity, and the stupidity of the rule he violated, and watch how they will ignore the stupidity, not to mention the immorality, of the NFL rule.

Here’s where the FXFL comes in.

At least this is where it should come in.

The league consists of four teams made up of players who had tryouts with NFL teams in the last three years. ESPN3 agreed to televise its games, which began last week.

Gurley should be able to tell the NCAA and Georgia to take a hike, and he should call the FXFL and say he’s available to play next week.

The FXFL, of course, would benefit from the publicity and sell lots of tickets to Gurley’s first game.

This is unlikely to happen because the FXFL is in the process of kissing the NFL’s behind in hopes of developing a working agreement similar to Major League Baseball’s affiliation with minor league baseball.

It would be nice if Gurley could sue the NFL for the right to play based on anti-trust violations but Maurice Clarrett, then of Ohio State, tried that in 2004. He won his case in court but the decision was overturned by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The judge who rendered the decision was Sonia Sotomayor, who’s now on the Supreme Court.

Remember the outrage from the national sports media last year when Manziel was being persecuted for allegedly making a few bucks with his autograph?

Remember how the NCAA was ridiculed?

The NCAA since agreed to tweak its rules to give more power to teams in the five big conferences, which could eventually lead to players being paid.

But the NFL’s ridiculous rule that prevents perfectly qualified athletes from playing in the only major pro football league in America will get no tweaking.

• I’m trying to imagine Jack Lambert striding up to Ken Stabler after a Steelers-Raiders game in 1974 and asking him if he’d like to exchange jerseys. Better yet, how about Stabler striding up to Lambert and asking him that question?

Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown was told by head coach Mike Tomlin to stop exchanging jerseys with opponents after games. Apparently, Brown did it a lot. Brown, who shows on a weekly basis that he needs to grow up, said he understood Tomlin’s ban: “We want a point of emphasis on winning games. We’re not here to trade apparel. It’s the right thing to do.”

• The Steelers throwing a pass and not taking a knee three times at the end of last week’s win over Jacksonville was not the right thing to do.

It was stupid.

By now, you know that it was done to prolong Brown’s record of at least five catches for at least 50 yards in 21 consecutive games.

Or is it 22? I lost track.

See how long it took you to read what the record is?

That makes it a record nobody outside a two-block radius of the Steelers’ complex on the South Side cares about.

Here’s hoping the streak ends in Cleveland.

With four touchdown catches for a total of 49 yards.

John Steigerwald writes a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter.