The Air Force will use Austin Cutting for recruiting as he plays in the NFL while serving a two-year military commitment, his agent, Darren Deloatche, told Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press.
The seventh-round draft choice has agreed to terms and will start training camp with the Vikings on Tuesday.
Cutting is a second lieutenant in the Air Force. The Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs is Cutting’s assigned station, but the Air Force will assign him to Minnesota “at the present time,” Deloatche told Tomasson. Cutting’s assigned station would change if he earns a roster spot on another team.
Cutting will have to beat out incumbent Kevin McDermott to win the Vikings’ long snapper job, but it initially appeared Cutting wouldn’t get that chance.
President Donald Trump announced a change in policy June 26, allowing cadets and midshipmen attending service academies or earning a commission through ROTC to pursue professional sports careers immediately rather than wait two years.
“All the parties are benefiting by this,” Deloatche said, via Tomasson. “Austin is getting this opportunity right here, right now in the NFL; the Vikings are benefiting because they’ve got a legitimate long-snapping battle in camp with two talented individuals; and all branches of the military are benefiting because student-athletes are going to see that, with the impending new regulation that is going to eventually be established by the Department of Defense, if they have the talent to play professionally, they will get that opportunity when they first come out of school.”