Tua Tagovailoa shares thoughts on 3-year rule to become NFL Draft eligible

To the delight of Alabama football fans, Tua Tagovailoa is back for a second season as the Crimson Tide’s starting quarterback. Unlike college basketball players, Tagovailoa and other true sophomores don’t have a draft decision to make after Year 2.

While plenty of experts would say Tagovailoa is NFL ready, the junior quarterback said he supports the rules that requires players be three years removed from high school graduation before being able to enter the NFL Draft.

“I honestly think that is a good rule,” Tagovailoa said in a recent radio interview with Zach Gelb of CBS Sports. “I mean, I’d say because when you go the NFL, I mean, you’re playing against grown men. This isn’t something that you need to take lightly. And you’ve got to take into consideration that it’s a job. It’s a job when you go to the NFL, and just being able to stay in college for another year, for me — I mean, being able to hear all these people, these speakers come and talk to us, you know, about how to be accountable for your money. How to be accountable in things you do. You learn so many lessons before you even reach that stage, too, where when things do happen, you’ve heard it from other guys. You have contacts to go to.

“Just little things like that, I mean when you come out of high school and you only play a year in college, I mean, how fast it’s gonna be, it’s gonna be ridiculous. I hear guys who have played in the league that come back that are from Alabama and they say you can’t compare the two. College is definitely a lot different than the NFL, in all aspects, in every aspect. So I think the three years is fine for me.”

If he had the opportunity, Tagovailoa would have weighed his options.

“Well, I’d probably have to sit down and talk with my parents, see what the best decision would be for me to do, and if they would want me to go I would do everything possible to prepare for it,” Tagovailoa said. “There wouldn’t be any other way.”

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.