Hypothetical Question: If walk-on to NFL then retires, college eligible?

[Purple Punishment]

Say there is someone out there that walks on to a NFL team and makes the roster, like in the movie Invincible. Never went to college. Say he plays a few years in the NFL and decides to hang em up and goto college with the money he made as a player. Would he be allowed play football at a collegiate level if he wanted to?

[Purple Nurple]

Crazy question but now I'd like to know the answer!

[theFRANCHISE]

No.

According to the NCAA's eligibility guidelines, a prospective student-athlete may try out for an NFL or any other professional sports team but [i]cannot[/i] play for a collegiate program [i]if[/i] he receives compensation beyond the necessary expenses for said pro tryout. Essentially, an NFL contract, no matter how small, would violate those terms. ([url="http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal/ncaahome?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/ncaa/ncaa/legislation+and+governance/eligibility+and+recruiting/faqs/amateurism_tryouts"]LINK[/url])

When you see older men play for college football teams, it's usually a case where a guy went straight into the workplace after high school and decided to give college a shot later, [i]or[/i] took some community college courses but never completed enough credits to count against their NCAA eligibility.

[Purple Punishment]

Oh well, guess I can't make a comeback then lol

[theFRANCHISE]

[quote name='Purple Punishment' timestamp='1322434300' post='888186']
Oh well, guess I can't make a comeback then lol
[/quote]
There's an eligibility process and anyone can see whether they qualify. However, the biggest rule of thumb is, if you've made any sort of money in professional sports, you cannot play an NCAA-regulated sport in college thereafter.

[Purple Punishment]

How bout shaking this up. Say he walks on and gets injured. Receives disability from the NFL but never was paid for playing. He goes to college and decides to play after his disability went away