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.