Academy athletes and the NFL: the reserve route compared with the two-year rule

The old rule, and how it bent

For years the default was simple: serve at least two years on active duty, then you could apply for reserve status and try the pros. A May 2016 Pentagon policy let graduates apply for the Ready Reserve right away, though approval was never guaranteed. It lasted about a year. On May 1, 2017, Military Times reported the Defense Department had rescinded it, catching Air Force receiver Jalen Robinette just before that spring's draft.

In November 2019, after President Trump asked for a new policy that June, Defense Secretary Mark Esper signed a memo letting athletes defer their service until after their playing days. The catch, per the Associated Press account in Air Force Times, was a five-year obligation waiting at the end, or a civilian Defense job, or repaying the cost of their education. Esper's memo also asked for a "strong expectation" that the athlete's pro career would bring the department "significant favorable media exposure." Then, in December 2022, a defense authorization law closed immediate access again.

The route Heidenreich is on

The current path comes from Section 557 of the Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. According to the Congressional Research Service, it lets a military department move selected graduates straight into the Selected Reserve as commissioned officers, with a minimum ten-year service obligation and no active-duty obligation. Their job in uniform is to help the services recruit and retain people. The original cap was three per academy per year. The FY2026 law, CRS says, raised it to five.

That matches what Heidenreich has described. He told EssentiallySports he is a Marine Corps reservist whose role right now is essentially to be a positive public face for the military, that he first committed to five years of service afterward, and that he will later have the choice to go back active or not. He is working under a ten-year agreement, the outlet reported.

Old rule compared with the new one, in plain terms

The two-year rule treated sports as something you earned after service. The current law treats a pro athlete in uniform as a form of service, a recruiting billboard with a commission. You can argue about that. Air Force product Sam Kulasingam, who went into the Royals system, argued for it to the Denver Gazette, calling professional sports an outreach program and "one of the military's best tools for recruitment."

The old model produced a different kind of legend. Chad Hennings won the Outland Trophy at Air Force, flew 45 combat sorties in an A-10 over Iraq, and then played nine NFL seasons with three Super Bowl wins. I find it hard to call either path wrong when it produced people like that.

What could change next

The cap may not stay at five. CRS reported on July 24, 2026 that the House-passed FY2027 defense bill would eliminate the cap, while the Senate version would raise it to ten and let service secretaries waive the limit in the national interest. We could not confirm a final version as of September 27, 2026, so treat the number as live. For Heidenreich, what matters is that his deal is already signed: football now, the Marines later, and a salute on draft night that did plenty of recruiting on its own.