ANNAPOLIS, Md. – An immediate future in professional sports is again a possibility for the football players taking the field Saturday for Air Force and Navy, along with their service academy brethren at Army and in other sports.

Tucked deep within Section 557 of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2025 is a provision that permits “not more than three” cadets or midshipmen in each academic year who obtain employment in professional sports to be transferred to the Selected Reserves as commissioned officers to “participate in efforts to recruit and retain members of the armed forces.”

This marks the latest change in policy regarding professional sports for service academy graduates.

Rules dating back decades had called for at least two years of service on active duty before an athlete could apply to serve on reserve status for the purpose of pursuing professional sports.

That policy changed late in the second term of the President Barack Obama’s Administration, allowing approved athletes to play professionally immediately while serving on reserve status. This latest change most closely resembles that rule.

Former Air Force tight end Garrett Griffin was among those to graduate during that time, as he launched a seven-year career in the NFL.

That policy was abruptly rescinded in 2017, just as several Air Force players – receiver Jalen Robinette and safety Weston Steelhammer among them – were prospects in the NFL Draft. Two years on active duty was again required before athletes could turn pro.

The next rule, put in place in 2019 under the first Trump Administration, allowed athletes to defer service time. After graduation they would not immediately commission. For most, like Air Force offensive lineman Parker Ferguson and cornerback Zane Lewis, who both logged time on the practice squad of the New York Jets, that afforded them time to pursue professional sports and then saw them eventually serve as officers once attempts at an athletic career were exhausted.

Air Force graduate Jordan Jackson, a Dec. 2021 graduate, remains a member of the Denver Broncos after turning pro under this policy.

“These student-athletes should be able to defer their military service obligations until they have completed their professional sports careers,” President Donald Trump wrote in a 2019 presidential memorandum.

In December 2022 immediate access to pro sports was closed again by a National Defense Authorization Act that stated a “cadet may not obtain employment, including as a professional athlete, until after completing the cadet’s commissioned service obligation.”

Though some cadets were grandfathered in under the previous policy, that rule was set to be in effect for the 2025 graduating class.

But that was not the case, as the latest policy allowed Air Force graduate Ethan Taylor to play in the NBA Summer League with the Los Angeles Lakers as he pursues a professional career.

The limitation of the current act is that it caps the number of athletes per academy who can serve in this capacity at three.

History suggests that will be plenty. Air Force currently has seven graduates in (or recently in) professional sports – Taylor in basketball; Jackson, Bo Richter (Minnesota Vikings) and Trey Taylor (recently waved by the Las Vegas Raiders) in football; Griffin Jax (Tampa Bay Rays), Sam Kulasingam (Kansas City Royals system) and Jay Thomason (Minnesota Twins system) in baseball.

“I think, for the Air Force, it’s one of the best ways to promote the military,” Kulasingam told The Gazette during spring training in March, before he led the Royals’ minor league system with 136 hits. “Obviously the military as a whole is struggling to bring people in right now. Being able to use professional sports as basically an outreach program … I think that’s one of the military’s best tools for recruitment.”

Air Force coaches have long noted that a path to professional sports is important to recruiting.

“Overwhelmingly yes,” Falcons football coach Troy Calhoun said this past summer when asked if he is in support of a path to professional sports for service academy athletes.