LSU blinks, for now, on the issue of putting former NFL players on the roster

Discretion is the better part of valor. Or something.

Despite an injunction allowing LSU to add former NFL players Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris to the roster before Saturday’s season opener against Clemson, LSU opted not to do so, via Pete Thamel of ESPN, before the Friday night deadline.

The roster has 103 players, leaving two spots for Wright and Harris. Thamel adds that the two players could be added later in the season.

The move suggests that LSU took a broader look at the benefits and the cost of moving forward with the two former NFL players, given the intense reaction by the SEC — and the potential for long-term issues with the conference and its other members.

The outcome was lurking between the lines of the statement issued on Friday by LSU president Wade Rousse. And while coach Lane Kiffin may have wanted to shout “damn the torpedoes,” Rousse apparently realized that the situation could sink the school’s future in the SEC.

Was it worth it? LSU decided that, for now, it was not.