Decisions, decisions
To play football or to play baseball? That is the question for
Jarrad Page, who signed a letter of intent to play safety at UCLA
and was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the fifth round of the
Major League Baseball Draft in June. The 6-foot, 200-pounder is
still considering his options.
“I’d like to do both,” he told the San
Francisco Chronicle.
NCAA regulations would allow for it. Ricky Manning, Jr. and Matt
Ware currently play UCLA football in the fall and minor league
baseball in the summer.
On the other hand, Page could conceivably go the route of Mike
Nixon, a top safety from Phoenix, who withdrew from his letter of
intent to play football at UCLA to concentrate on baseball. Nixon,
who signed a contract worth a little over $1 million with the Los
Angeles Dodgers a week after they took him in the third round of
the draft, was expected to compete for playing time as a true
freshman in the UCLA secondary.
Not so fast
Former UCLA standout running back DeShaun Foster was sidelined
once again, but this time it had nothing to do with an NCAA
violation or an injury.
An agreement between the NCAA and the NFL that prohibits rookies
from practicing with their new teams while their schools are in
session forced the Carolina Panthers’ second-round pick to
miss two weeks of voluntary workouts.
Because UCLA is on the less-used quarter system, and its school
year concludes later than those on the semester system, Foster was
the only inactive Carolina rookie.
“I’m not going to say it’s unfair,” he
told The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.). “If it’s a rule,
it’s a rule. If we were on semesters, we wouldn’t have
known anything about this. But we’re on the quarter system. I
mean, this year we played four games before school even started. So
we just start school later than everybody, so we get out later.
“It was fun while I was in college. Now it hurts a little
bit, but it’s OK.”
In the meantime, Foster worked out with former UCLA safety
Marques Anderson, a third-round pick of the Green Bay Packers who
also had to miss practice because of the rule.
Foster returned to practice last Monday after the school year
ended the previous Friday. He will have to make up for lost time
quickly, as he is contending with veteran Lamar Smith for the
starting running back job.