President Donald Trump announced Monday he wants to make it easier for service academy athletes to go pro.
The President says he may reverse a Department of Defense rule which mandates athletes must fulfill their active-duty requirements before pursuing a career in professional sports.
“I am going to look at doing a waiver for service academy athletes who can get into the major leagues: the NFL, hockey, baseball,” Trump said. “They can serve their time after they are done with professional sports.”
Trump's comments Monday are a reversal of sorts. A provision in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, signed by the president, limited the release of service academy graduates to participate in professional athletics.
In 2017, then-Defense Secretary James Mattis rescinded a DoD policy created in 2016 allowing some athletes to ask to be placed on reserve status and sign a contract with a professional team. The current policy mandates all athletes to serve at least two years on active duty.
In a memo announcing the policy, Mattis wrote the academies “exist to develop future officers who enhance the readiness and lethality of our Military Services.”
“During their first two years following graduation, officers will serve as full-fledged military officers carrying out the normal work and career expectations of an officer who has received the extraordinary benefits of an ROTC or military academy education at taxpayer expense,” Mattis wrote.
Trump's comments came during the presentation of the Commander-in-Chief trophy to the Army Black Knights for being the best military academy football team. The President said Monday that he believes a new policy "would make recruiting a little bit easier" for service academy coaching staffs.
The Minnesota Vikings drafted Air Force long snapper Austin Cutting in the final round of the 2019 NFL Draft, but Cutting has not been cleared to play in the NFL this season by the Air Force.
“Going to the Academy, serving comes first; then going to the NFL, that actually comes second,” Cutting said via the Pioneer Press. “But it’s an honor be drafted, for sure.”
“We’re not trying to get out of any of (the commitment),” said Cutting of his two-year service commitment. “We’re trying to work with the academy, and they’re talking, trying to figure it out. But as of now, I am serving 24 months, and that’s how it is.”
Troy Garnhart, Air Force associate athletics director for communications, told the Pioneer Press, “He will absolutely serve and may have an opportunity to play in the NFL” and any resolution won't come for some time.