{"id":1038463,"date":"2026-09-02T08:08:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T08:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1038463\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T08:08:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T08:08:25","slug":"colts-gm-chris-ballard-rips-nfl-players-returning-to-college-football-stupidest-s-ive-ever-heard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1038463\/","title":{"rendered":"Colts GM Chris Ballard rips NFL players returning to college football: ‘Stupidest s— I\u2019ve ever heard’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

College sports<\/a> have taken some strange turns in recent years, but they may have reached a new level of absurdity with professional football players attempting to return to the college ranks.<\/p>\n

This is still being worked out in courts as players battle for a fifth year of college eligibility.<\/p>\n

But one person who is definitely not on their side is Indianapolis Colts<\/a> general manager Chris Ballard.<\/p>\n

NFL TO NCAA? COURTROOM CHAOS IS GIVING PRO ATHLETES A BIZARRE PATH BACK TO COLLEGE, AND IT’S ONLY JUST BEGUN<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Chris <\/p>\n

Indianapolis Colts GM Chris Ballard didn’t hold back when asked about the prospect of former pros returning to college. (Photo by Jeffrey Brown\/Icon Sportswire)<\/p>\n

According to CBS Sports, none of the Colts’ players are among those trying to go all Rodney Dangerfield and head back to school. But if they did, they may want to reconsider, because they won’t be getting any support from him on the matter.<\/p>\n

“No,” Ballard said after being asked if any players had talked to him about moving back to the collegiate ranks. “It’s the stupidest s— I’ve ever heard. I’m sorry. I know I’ll catch crap for this. Your entire life, you fight to get up to the NFL, but now we’re gonna go back. OK, that makes a lot of freaking sense.”<\/p>\n

Well, when you put it that way…<\/p>\n

This comes after LSU<\/a> brought in some players who had previously played for head coach Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss. The players in question had been signed to NFL teams before attempting to resume their college careers.<\/p>\n

LSU ALUM BEN MCDONALD SAYS HE DOESN’T AGREE WITH NFL-TO-COLLEGE RETURNS, BUT UNDERSTANDS WHY COACHES WANT THEM<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"SEC <\/p>\n

A hearing slated for Thursday will focus on the SEC’s ban on professionals returning to college. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The SEC and the Big Ten have both put rules in place banning players who have appeared on professional rosters from returning to college.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

However, a hearing is scheduled for Thursday in Baton Rouge that will take a look at the SEC’s ban on former professionals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Matthew Reigle is a writer for OutKick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"College sports have taken some strange turns in recent years, but they may have reached a new level…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1038464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,9002,16660,1317,182579,1315,1316,306237,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1038463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-lsu-tigers","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-fb","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-outkick-sports","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1038463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1038464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1038463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1038463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1038463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}