Army football Jeff Monken supports President Trump's proposal to allow service-academy student-athletes to pursue a professional career.
"I mentioned this to [Army head coach Jeff Monken], and its a big deal . . . I'm gonna look at doing a waiver for service academy athletes who can get into the major leagues like the NFL, hockey. And they'll serve their time after they're finished with professional sports," Trump said while honoring the Army football team with the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy at the White House in May.
"Can you imagine this incredible coach with that little asset because I would imagine that would make recruiting a little bit easier? We're gonna, on behalf of the coach, who's a tremendous guy, we're gonna look at a waiver for the service academies."
The Pentagon immediately responded to Trump's comments by saying, “No service shall make unique or special arrangements pertaining to the initial assignments for [military service academies] or [Reserve Officer Training Corps] graduates that are not typically available to other such graduates."
For now, a policy change doesn't appear imminent, though Monken supports such a change. He discussed that and more on this week's episode of the High Motor podcast.
Listen (starts at 17:30):
