Getty Images

Football players at the three service academies — Army, Navy and Air Force — oasis't always had a direct path to the NFL. Some, like Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach, have had to serve in agile duty for five years before playing pro football. Others, similar onetime Raiders running dorsum Napoleon McCallum, accept been immune to play football game while also serving in the military machine, but had to take seasons off when their armed services service required. And still others, like Ravens rookie Keenan Reynolds, have been cleared to become straight to the NFL without military service getting in the manner.

A new Section of Defence force policy will allow all players to follow Reynolds' path to the NFL.

The new policy, obtained by the Colorado Springs Gazette, states that service academy graduates with offers to play pro sports tin serve in the reserves, rather than active duty, and so that they can pursue their athletic careers. The new policy will make information technology much easier for players to go directly to the NFL after playing football game at Army, Navy and Air Force.

The policy will too make star loftier school athletes with NFL dreams more likely to consider the service academies. It'southward currently rare for tiptop recruits to even consider Army, Navy or Air Forcefulness.

Non everyone thinks that's a good idea. After Reynolds was granted permission to go straight to the Ravens rather than serving in active duty start, retired Army lieutenant colonel Tom Slear wrote in the Washington Mail service that the reason the taxpayers pay for tuition-free service academy education is to strengthen America's armed services, not to provide the NFL with hereafter players.

"They exist to instill young men and women with a heed-gear up of selfless service to the country. There is no other justification for the significant public expense that supports them," Slear wrote, "Professional football, on the other manus, is about service to oneself. It has its place, simply not for academy graduates who haven't fulfilled their obligations to their fellow citizens. Each fourth dimension one of them leaves early, the ethos diminishes a fleck, and the taxpayers are cheated."

Those concerns bated, Reynolds is going directly to the NFL. And more service university players will follow.