A not too long ago in a sport we all know and love an evil dark force now runs rampant across the college scene. The NCAA has established itself as a super power and the rebel college players and ESPN analysts try to fight off the association in hope to bring balance to the power of hoops. Ok sorry for the Star Wars reference there, but I think it’s a good comparison. The athletes, the revenue-generators, the young people deemed too precious to be burdened by the dollars they produce, have absolutely no power and no watchdog institutions looking out for their welfare. It’s comes off to me as extremely unfair to use someone else’s talent to make yourself money, aren’t there several terms for this? I believe in college and in the writing field it’s called plagiarism. Sorry kids no Wikipedia is allowed in here.
That’s not true Ryan! You say. Sorry but, yes it is. I bring this up because of what happened at Rutgers.
Mike Rice got a slap on the wrist for his serial, physically and verbally abusive behavior toward his players. After watching hours of video footage of Rice hitting his players with basketballs, kicking them, shoving them, cursing them with slurs and hearing one of his assistant coaches complain about the abuse, Rutgers did what any self-aware, NCAA-governed institution would do. The good school of Rutgers chose to not renew the contract of the whistle blowing, trouble-making assistant coach, a former NBA point guard I’ll have you know, Eric Murdock and then the upstanding New Jersey University suspended Rice for three games, yea just three, and fined him $50,000. Problem solved.
I mean Murdock didn’t cover up for his players getting free tattoos from a complete stranger or look the other way when a booster gave some poor kid’s family 50 grand and a cushy job. Murdock committed no crime and yet he’s the one who’s severely punished. Absolute power corrupts. There’s no surprise that the all-powerful institutions in pursuit of dollars would tolerate the abuse of young people. Penn State and Jerry Sandusky, anyone….again, anyone? Maybe the Nazi Party didn’t go away, instead they decided to corrupt and hurt our youth by becoming the NCAA.
Rice kicked a player and that’s a misdemeanor that cost him three games. What if one of the Rutgers players, sick and tired of the abuse, decided to transfer to another Division I institution where he might get treated with at least some form of respect, the NCAA would consider that a felony crime worthy of a one-year suspension of play.
It’s the system. The NCAA rule book must be burned and rewritten, like a phoenix rising from the ashes. The young athletes should not be treated as equals, but we shouldn’t leave them broke, powerless and without representation. It makes me sad and sick to watch how these players are treated. Equal right to all, the schools need to stop rolling around in their beds of money and the Government needs to step in and say something, like Chris Cristie. Obama you’re next, if you were afraid to let your imaginary son play football wouldn’t be afraid to watch your imaginary son get abused by the system in basketball?
Go Deep Sports 