Jan 17, 2015 5 min read

Cardale Jones should have gone pro.

After quarterbacking Ohio State to the NCAA’s most recent version of the mythical national championship Monday night, he had until Thursday to declare his eligibility for the NFL draft.

He decided to go back to school because he doesn’t believe he’s ready for the NFL, and he wants to focus on getting his degree.

Jones has NFL scouts confused. He only started three games but they were three of the biggest games in Ohio State history. He won all three.

He’s 6-6, 250 and has a cannon for an arm.

The consensus seems to be he would have been at least a second round pick. Depending on where in the second round he would go, it would mean anywhere from $750,000 to $4 million in guaranteed money.

Jones is 22. He went to military school after graduating from high school and was redshirted his freshman year. After training camp, he was Ohio State’s third-string quarterback.

Braxton Miller, who also is an NFL prospect, will return from his season ending injury next season and is expected to be the starter,

Jones should have gone for the cash.

Forget the degree. He’s majoring in African-American studies. I haven’t researched it, but I’m going to guess there aren’t a lot of African American Studies graduates making $100,000 a year, especially former college football players not playing in the NFL.

If Jones were to get $4 million in guaranteed money, that’s $100,000 a year for 40 years.

If he sits behind Miller next season, his draft stock will go down. If he had been drafted, he would have sat behind an NFL quarterback and be paid lots of money for doing it.

If the degree is really important to him, there’s nothing preventing him from using his NFL money to pay his tuition.

Jones has a two-year-old daughter. A nice NFL signing bonus would allow him to put a nice chunk of money in a trust fund for her and make her a rich woman when she’s 22.

Maybe he’ll beat out Miller for the starting job next season or perhaps, after sitting a year, he’ll start in 2017 and play well enough to be a No. 1 pick.

There’s also just as good a chance that he will see his draft stock fall or he’ll get injured or both. An insurance policy will bring him some major money if he suffers a career-ending injury, but falling draft stock could cost him millions.

This is really be a no-brainer.

If Jones were a drama major and Stephen Spielberg called and offered him a million dollars to appear in one of his movies, would anybody suggest he stay in school, perform in the Ohio State theatre’s production of “Kiss Me Kate” and get his degree?

Let’s forget about the degree.

Would a junior majoring in criminal justice be wise to turn down a job with the FBI in favor of getting the degree?

Take the job. Use the money to pay for tuition.

Jones’ decision was a football-only decision. There’s nothing wrong with that. It was just the wrong football decision.

But here’s something that isn’t discussed enough: Did you know there are two players on this year’s Ohio State hockey team who were drafted by an NHL team? They didn’t have to make the choice Jones was forced to make. They were drafted, went to NHL training camps and maintained their eligibility while pursuing their degrees.

There are 289 current NCAA hockey players who have been drafted by NHL teams.

What a concept, eh?

Why is amateur purity so much more important for football players?

• So, the Denver Broncos think a new coach can improve on John Fox. All he has to do is win five division championships and go to the Super Bowl twice. Probably without Peyton Manning. Good luck with that.

• The Steelers believe their defense will be better with Keith Butler as coordinator than it was with Dick LeBeau. Good luck with that, too. Butler was the heir apparent for a long time and, by all accounts, is an excellent coach who’s well-liked and respected by his players. His problem is his players won’t be a young Troy Polamalu, Ike Taylor, James Harrison, Aaron Smith, James Farrior or Casey Hampton.

• Why is it that so much of the analysis of the Penguins fails to include the fact they’ve been playing without two of the players who played major roles in their fast start – Patric Hornqvist and Blake Comeau? Not to mention Olli Maatta.

• Is it possible the Pirates might be in the process of eventually replacing a proven kid from Pine-Richland with an unproven kid from South Korea because of Major League Baseball’s stupid economics?

• The focus on Ryan Suter’s elbow to Steve Downie’s head should be on the weaponized elbow pads all players are wearing. All equipment should have been de-weaponized a long time ago. The pad should be soft enough that Suter’s elbow hurts as much as Downie’s head.

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