Racial resentment and your opinion on paying college athletes

https://sports.vice.com/en_us/artic...nt-fuel-opposition-to-paying-college-athletes

As someone from a school with a long tradition of paying our athletes I fully support the NCAA taking its head out of its ass on this issue.

But yeah, they needed a study of this? Republicans have been using this dynamic for decades now 'welfare queens driving Cadillacs' and it's reaching a head right now. "What they are coming for MY BENEFITS, but he said they were only gonna take THEIR benefits!"

The fact these guys can't even make money off their own autographs is pretty atrocious.

And as for the "they'll spend it on weed and kicks and tats" I tend to agree with that. It's what I would have done in college, I sure wasn't thinking about no savings accounts or RRSPs back then.

I think the solution is to revoke all the scholarships for all the sports.

You can still have the sports but the players on the team are either paying their own way through college or already have scholarships (non-sports) to go to the college.

Won't the NCAA still be able to make loads of money on them, though?

Pay the athletes than.

I just wish there'd be less of a focus on athletics in all levels of education.

I firmly believe that all organized competitive sports are dumb and only appeal to nerds. This should not be a multi-million dollar industry at the college level.

However, I recognize none of it is going away.

Should these athletes receive stipends on top of their scholarships?
Absolutely. (The scholarships shouldn't even be needed at public universities because post-secondary public education should be free in the US, but that's another topic)

Will they blow it on video games, weed, and booze?
Probably, they're in college.

Who cares what they spend it on?
Idiots with sticks up their butts who take sports way to fucking seriously.

Maybe instead of just a stipend, the money could be paying into a retirement savings plan for these athletes. On the small chance than any of them go professional after college, a lot of professional athletes go broke after they retire. Even if they don't go broke or don't go professional, it's still a good idea for anyone to start a retirement account while they're still young. And at least that would stop the tightwads from complaining that athletes might dare to buy beer and weed.

This.

Racial code words? Really?



Did this lady ever stop to think that maybe Cowherd has covered college sports long enough to know that white athletes can be just as financially stupid as their black counterparts?

Why?

The rest of your post i can understand and partly agree with but why are organised competitive sports dumb?

If they flip burgers at McDonald's no one tells them how to spend their money. That is like saying we cannot pay you to flip burgers because you might spend it on weed and video games. The only time you get to do that sort of thing is if they are women and might spend money on abortions or birth control. Then you can tell them how to spend their earned money. You should not be able to but right wing fascism jamming religion down the throats of women to keep them less competitive and lower paid is a thing.

The athletes do a job. It may be a game, but they perform like any professional performer and make money for the business that is the sports team and all that goes along with it. I just think there should not be a college associated with it. If the athletes want to go to college they can pay the tuition like any other student. We need to stop hiding taxable income behind academic institutions. Pay the athletes and let them do what they will with their money.

They're completely unproductive. For the more physical sports (e.g. American football and football as the rest of the world calls it), they appeal to our baser lust for violence. Additionally, there is a problem with long-term concussions in US football players, leading to medical expenses and a reduced quality of living that doesn't equalize with the pay they receive. For the less physical sports (e.g. baseball and golf), they're absolutely fucking boring. Professional athletes, as already mentioned, tend to wind up broke after they retire. Sports stadiums and arenas tend to cost cities more money than they generate (in terms of tax money helping to pay for the stadium, parking, traffic congestion, etc.). As a society, we tend to glorify athletes to the point where a lot of them have gotten away with some very serious crimes or have received severely reduced sentences (OJ Simpson, Kobe Bryant, Oscar Pistorius). I'm completely fine with amateur competitive sports because I'm all in favor of physical activity. But sports is a multi-billion dollar industry that, at best, entertains people enough to make them act like lunatics, and at worst, ruins the lives of the athletes and the functioning of cities.

That, I think, is a key point. Students do all kinds of jobs on college campuses. So if we zero in on one specific thing and say "well, if we pay them for that, they'll just spend the money on drugs and shoes," and if that one specific thing also is the area that's dominated by African-American students, then I think questioning the motives behind the statement is fair.

It does seem rather dumb to not pay students playing on the university team. After all, that is "work" in the same sense that professional athletes do. Scholarships might pay for school, and maybe even dorm housing if they're lucky, but what about books? What about any food or anything else they might want with them in the dorm room instead of having to trek over to the dining hall? Hell, how about that meal plan? What about anything else they might randomly want when they travel to play? Isn't stuff like that part of the "experience?" Plus, do they really want to worry about them going off and getting another job so they can buy anything else they need or want?

Why?

This seems punitive for the sake of being punitive.

I stopped at the B.S over the tats and weeds comment. Either this writer is ignorant of the fact that tats and weed have been a mainstay in white culture for decades or he's just fishing for an excuse to play the race card.

^ And "kicks" as well? Yes, white people buy shoes too, but "kicks" is a term that has definite roots in urban African-American culture, and is probably not something a middle-aged white man from Amherst would use in the normal context of his own life.

In addition, if you stopped reading there, you missed a whole lot of discussion of actual data.

Punitive?

I haven’t researched any of this but I think you are so far off base you are more than likely arguing from the position of someone who has no interest in sports rather than looking at what these things actually do. You say they are completely unproductive and yes, they are an entertainment industry, but the value they provide to the economy in terms of job creation both direct and indirect is huge, never mind the wider fitness and mental health benefits of encouraging participation in exercise. Hell, they even got Dayton a job.

I’m sure if I were to put my mind to it, research it and structure it you could write a book on the economic benefits to society of sports. Sports are multi-billion dollar industries which have direct and indirect jobs and wider benefits. To say they are unproductive is completely missing the point. I'm a big fan of 'the arts', but I really struggle to see how the arts could provide the level of direct and indirect benefits sports do.

You mention you are fine with the amateur level, but in all likelihood, amateur participation would be a fraction of what it is at present without the pro leagues.

Athletes being broke - historical problem yes, but it's much less of a problem these days. Arena's costing the city money. I don't know the economics of the NFL and the franchise system so can't argue. In the UK - Wembley aside, these things tend to do exceptionally well if they are constructed based on a reasonable forecast of returns.

The concussion CTE element, yes that is a problem and I have no idea how it can be fixed in terms of grid iron. One sport having an issue with hit's doesn't really over rule the wider benefits of professional sport in general.

I'm sure we could go right through professional sports and list the direct and indirect jobs created and include:

• players
• coaches
• fitness staff
• medical staff
• admin staff
• legals
• marketing/advertising
• retail
• transport and logistics
• construction
• apparel and sports equipment
• research and development
• waste disposal

Thats only a short list off the top of my head and this is a short answer during lunch, no doubt it could be factored up 10 fold.

Take those jobs and look at the pyramid structures of the pro, amateur and junior leagues. Look at the offshoots, I believe worldwide sports apparel company Under Armour was started by an American Footballer in his garage, now it's a global brand. You say golf is boring but yet the PGA tour raises more than $2 billion for charity every year. No doubt the other sports have similar charitable arms.

I've always wondered how the "student-athletes" in the major sports could possibly have time to study, complete assignments or even attend class considering all the time they must devote to practices, workouts, team functions, and traveling for away games. Even in the off-season there are demands on their time. It doesn't seem like they are able to function as normal students, due to their status as quasi-employees of the university.

The majority of student-athletes do not go on to play professional ball. It seems to me that it would be better to defer the student-athlete's scholarship until after their playing career at the school is over. Then they can take that 4-year free ride and truly focus on academics without having to split their attention between studies and sports. It would be better for the athlete in terms of making sure they get their education and are prepared for life after college athletics.

I have my own issues with professional sports, particularly tax funded stadiums as well as the attitudes of some of the athletes. But your post is spot on.

The issues with athletes being broke is due to their carelessness with money. 30 for 30 did an excellent documentary that covered the reasons why athletes go broke.

On concussions and head injuries the NFL has improved lots with trying to reduce them. Much more than boxing, which doesn't even require their athletes to use head gear .

We are talking about making them employees of universities. That in and of itself usually involves some form of code of conduct.

My guess is he was deliberately fishing for a chance to play the race card. That is how journalists get edgy and thus are able to sell their article on wire services when it would otherwise languish in the local bird cage liner.

Huh?

Nobody says "We shouldn't pay students for working in the dining hall because they might spend the money on drugs."

Let alone video games or shoes.

Code of conduct while doing their job sure, but you do not get to tell people you cannot buy video games or sneakers with your paycheck. Illegal drugs are different as they are a crime and drug testing is a thing.

Regarding the money thing, that's true of a number of new money folks. It doesn't surprise me that when a kid who grew up poor and where no one discussed money at home gets s shit ton of cash, they'll blow through it. "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" exists because Will Smith didn't know how taxes worked during the height of his musical career and he didn't see a paycheck from there for the first three seasons due to backtaxes, as one example.