Samardzija to play pro baseball and football

So Jeff Samardzija signed with the Cubs, and in the story is included this nugget: Samardzija will be able to play at Notre Dame this fall. His plan is to play professional baseball and football after graduating Notre Dame and he is a possible first round draft choice in the next NFL draft.
Is he good enough to do both?  Most MLB teams baby their pitchers. How are they going to react to him running crossing patterns in front of a safety? Good decision/bad decision?

 

Pissed:




And for the ladies (possibly NSFW):

http://www.outsports.com/entertainment/20050421bloom.htm

 

Samardzija is suppose to play baseball this summer with the Cubs ( NY Penn league ?). I have heard from a few friends that there is an interesting battle shaping up between the ND SID and media. They are trying to control and mangage access to to Jeff this summer when he is part of Cubs organization. They are already strong arming media not to ask him football related questions.

Seems a bit over the top on part of ND.

 

C'mon... overmanagement of the media? At NOTRE DAME???? I call bullshit....

 

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but if he plays pro baseball this summer, does that not make him ineligible to play NCAA football in the fall? Or would he only be ineligible for NCAA baseball?

 

You can play professinally in one sport and retian eligibility in others.
John Elway did this as well. Spent a summer playing outfield for the Oneonta Yankees, took about 500K of Steinbrenner's money and then went back to his real sport.
Others have done it as well.

 

Josh Booty did it with LSU. He played for the Marlins for several years, then went back and was the Tigers' starting QB.

 

Who replaced Doug Walker?

 

Media ethics scenario, you make the call: ND gets you an interview with Samardzija to talk specifically about football. In the course of the interview, he talks to you about his baseball negotiations. You use the baseball info, and his quotes make some waves. ND complains to you that you violated the terms of the interview.

Your response? Is there any reason you don't use the baseball stuff?

 

Ricky Williams and Cedric Benson did it as well...

 

I'd use it. He's an adult and a professional athlete. He can talk about whatever he pleases.
I've had something similar happen to me where a PR person said something was off limits. I didn't ask the question, but the guy talked about it anyway, and I wrote about it. PR person was pissed, but they get over it, eventually.
If not, who cares, PR tend to come and go anyway.

 

This thread will end soon because no one wants to keep typing Samardzija.