Bluto
1681
I don’t understand how you give a kid valuable gold jewelry he cares little about and punish him when he sells it to get something he really does care about.
robsam
1682
They sold items that are symbolic to alumns and fans of the program. It’s a slap in the face to those fans, they might as well have added a “Fuck You OSU” tat when they were getting more ink.
You can argue all day that players should be compensated in some way beyond their free education, I may not agree but I’ll listen, but you are missing the fucking point on this one.
Hanacker
1683
He’s not being punished for not giving a shit about TOSU - he’s being punished for making money off of college football. That is the fucking point. I totally would have sold my championship ring for beer money when I was in college too (I wasn’t really into tattoos). Terelle Pryor didn’t ask to be put on a pedestal - he’s just looking for a stepping stone to the NFL. It would be nice if he showed some class, but how many college students really do, let alone college jocks?
Setting aside the creepy undercurrent of racism or bizarre anti-tattoo sentiment here, this is factually inaccurate. There are two separate scandals and you’ve combined them.
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Several players were trading autographs for free tattoos.
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6 players sold equipment/jewelry they got from the university. For Pryor, at least, the money was for his mother. Pryor’s father is permanently disabled and his family does not have a lot of money.
None
1685
That’s the story, anyways.
Rimbo
1686
There are a whole bunch of issues at play with paid players in college, and what’s right and wrong is not clear-cut.
Most of the kids are from low-income families. These kids are, for their parents and siblings, their ticket out of truly squalid circumstances. Is it really fair to expect them to live for several years of self-denial prior to making money? And given the dangers inherent in the sport, the fact that one injury can end one’s career before you even get to the point of making money…
On the other hand, most college athletic departments are losing money. There are a handful at the top who are making money hand over fist, and then there’s everybody else. If you start allowing players to be paid, the gap between the haves and have nots gets even bigger.
The argument used to be that the players were getting an education, and that was compensation enough. Well, some of them are, but for the overwhelming majority, this is a myth, a nasty excuse to avert one’s gaze from the injustice inherent in the system.
Basically, using college as the minor league for football presents some pretty nasty conflicts of interest. And I don’t know what the solution is.
Bluto
1687
I agree with you Rimbo, except to say that for the vast, vast majority of college players it’s not a path to making big money. There’s probably, what? 10,000 Division I-A scholarship players competing for ohhh, a few hundred NFL spots, at most?
The money is made on the backs of kids from poor families that had damn well better study because that scholarship is their only chance.
And forget about getting some extra cash to take a girl out or buy yourself a laptop (Hi Cam Newton… and you too Masoli).
ckessel
1688
The average NFL career is 3.5 seasons (according to a quick Google search), there are 32 teams, with a 53 man roster. 3.5 year average is about a 28.5% turnover each year. 32 * 53 * .285 = 483 spots available per year.
The large chunk of those 483 players are going to make the NFL minimum, which amounts to about $1 million over an average 3.5 year career. Not bad, but it’s hardly enough that you’ll be well off. A million, especially given the tax rate that income is at, isn’t going to do more than give you time to train for a real post-NFL career.
No idea what the practice squad limitations are or what the pay is or if it’s actually even a separate squad from the 53 man limit.
Bluto
1689
Right. It’s a good way to get a job coaching high school football in a few years. If I remember right, NFL scout teams are 8 or 10 people and their salaries are much less than the league minimum for roster players. So yeah, you nailed it.
I’ve heard that a large percentage of pro athletes go bankrupt. A large part of it is adjusting poorly to the sudden influx of wealth. You take a kid who was dirt poor, give him, say, $5 million, and suddenly he’s Bill Gates in his head. Goes out and buys anything and everything for him, his mom, his buddies. Then the career ends, and we’re back to square 1.
And maybe you should check the press reports before accusing me of stuff. Its been reported all over the place that Pryor himself paid for tattoos using his money from his jewelry. Personally, I’ll take the press reports over the bullshit being spouted by OSU’s Athletic Director, who is clearly trying to exercise damage control and make sure his players are on the field against Michigan State next year. If you choose to believe him, power to you, but all of the other reporting I read (and this story was SO last week for me until I returned to this thread and saw you accusing me of racism) said the money was used for tattoos. The link posted above by None is an example of same.
As for racism? WTF are you getting that? I have no idea what race/color any of the other players besides Pryor even IS, and certainly Caucasian football players tat themselves up every bit as much as African-American players.
EDIT: all that being said, I agree with Rimbo that college “amateur” athletics is a joke and a scam. The players are at best cash cows for their schools (I’m talking about Division I here, not anything else) and at worst you end up with broken bodies who get set aside by the school with nothing to show for it and very little recompense for their service.
Do you have a link? And I mean one that actually supports this claim. The link posted by None doesn’t support that claim. Or, really, any claim. I mean, it’s certainly possible that Pryor or the AD are lying, but that link doesn’t present any reason to think they are.
Sarkus
1693
According this article from the Columbus newspaper, all the players involved traded memorabilia for cash and discounts. No article I’ve seen breaks down the details, and all the players have claimed they did it to help their families, so until/unless the cops and NCAA release details we have to rely on the rather vague details reported.
After interviewing the players, it was determined they had accepted discounted rates for tattoos two years ago and also had sold some memorabilia, both of which are NCAA violations.
It’s not a simple black and white case where these guys traded stuff for tattoos, but it’s also not as simple as saying they only got cash to give their families. Either way both were NCAA violations.
Even if they’re not dirt poor, long-term financial planning isn’t really a common skill for people, especially young people who have to be extremely focused on their immediate career. It’s the rare 22-year-old who worries about how he’s going to pay property taxes on his $5 million home when he’s 35.
Wow, North Carolina. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING???
Edited: And replay saves NC’s ass for now. Jezus.
Edit #2: NC wins in 2OT. Wow, they had that game lost one or two times.
Sarkus
1696
Well that was unexpected: The Washington Huskies actually beat Nebraska in their bowl game rematch. Though I’m sure Husker fans will have their excuses for that.
Locker has done a pretty decent job of reestablishing his NFL prospect credibility since mid-season. He’s back to being viewed as a first rounder and if Luck ends up going back to Stanford for another year anything is possible for where Locker ends up being picked.
robsam
1697
oof It was like Les Miles was in the stadium to make sure NC got a do-over at the end. Twice in one season. Damn…
I’m surprised no one’s posted about the Syracuse-Kansas State game. I didn’t watch it, but I saw a recap this morning about how a KS player, who had just scored a touchdown that brought his team within a 2-point conversion of tying the game, got called for excessive celebration.
His crime? A half-second salute.
The 15-yard penalty got tacked onto the conversion try, which meant KS had to take it in from the 20 instead of the 5. They failed.
That ref needs to be fined or something (can they do that?), along with the crew chief who defended him for it. The ESPN folks this morning were pretty brutal on him too.
Bluto
1699
That was a Big Ten crew, and trust me when I say that crap has been going on all season.
The commentators in the NC/Tenn game were pretty brutal about it too. It was just flatly a bad call, but I’ve seen a ton of bad calls in the bowl games. That one just happened to cost a team the game, or at least a tie.
Tennessee completely melted down at the end of their game. They had it in the bag and then handed it away. 3 personal fouls in 4 plays, and there was a personal foul that went uncalled on the 4th play as well. All blatant–hits clearly out of bounds, hits clearly after the play was dead, all sorts of nonsense.
Yet I’m sure the Tennessee fan base is bitching today that the refs stole the game from them by putting one second back on the clock and allowing NC to kick a fieldgoal.
Oh, and Tennessee’s QB threw in interception in overtime.
