NFL Concussion Lawsuit: Are You Kidding Me?

In recent years the NFL has been trying to put an emphasis on player safety due to the growing concern of concussions and their impact on players lives. There has been a class action lawsuit filed by over 4,000 former NFL players claiming that the NFL failed to inform them of the dangers of head injuries received from playing football. The question to these players is “how in the world can you not know that repeated head injuries can have side effects?”

These athletes used their bodies for years to make money and appear on highlight clips, and the are saying that they had no clue that repeated head injuries would have serious life long effects. Have they never seen Muhammad Ali? His body and brain are seriously damaged due to the amount of head injuries that he received while boxing. It is simply common sense to know that repeatedly injuring any part of your body will result in long-term damage being done, and the brain is no different. If these players were really concerned about protecting and preserving their bodies they would have made a better choice of career. It is 100x more safe to be flipping burgers at McDonalds but they chose to go for the money and the more risky career in the NFL. My advice to these retirees is to stop making bogus claims and simply ask the to implement better health benefits for retirees, because the only people winning during all of this litigation are the lawyers. 

We Should Pay College Athletes:the Breakdown

College Athletes Should Be Paid: How To Break It Down

By: A.J. Parker

As previously discussed college athletes are modern day indentured servants that are being exploited for billions of dollars nationwide per year. It becomes a sticky question when you ask, “How much do you pay these athletes, and do different sports get different money?”

We know about Title IX and the unshaven feminist radicals that have pushed for “equality” but have actually imposed unfair education scholarship cuts and mass institutional monetary losses with non-revenue women’s sports.

Here is the breakdown

Student athletes that participate in “revenue sports” (sports that produce a profit for the institution) will receive .05% of the annual revenue from their sport for the previous year including their tuition, room, and board.

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For example The University of Alabama football program made $80 Million in 2012

o   Each player would receive .05% of that revenue totaling in %410,000 per year minus their tuition, room, board, and books totaling in $40,000

o   This would leave them roughly $7,000 per week for compensation.

·      The University of Alabama basketball team made $11 Million in 2012

o   Each player would receive .05% totaling in $55,000

o   Minus $40,000 for tuition, room, board, and books leaving the athlete with $15,000 per year.

·      “Non-Revenue” sports such as womens basketball, mens soccer, and bowling would no receive stipends because their market value is not equal to the revenue sports.

Some my cry that this is discrimination and all athletes should be paid the same if they are being paid. This is ludicrous because athletes that are bringing more money to the institution will obviously have more value to the institution. Claiming that they all should be paid the same would be like claiming WNBA and NBA players should be paid the same amount when the revenues from the different sports are vastly different. This is a logical plan in which the student athlete can be properly compensated for their contribution to their institution.

Are the Current Policies of the NCAA Glorified Slavery?

In the wake of recent NCAA rulings against the University of Miami, claiming that some of their student athletes received improper benefits, the question comes to mind “Are the current policies of the NCAA glorified slavery?” The simple answer is, yes. The form of slavery exemplified here is technically called indentured servitude. An indentured servant is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as a person who signs and is bound by indentures (contract) to work for another for a specified time especially in return for payment of travel expenses and maintenance. This action is the exact thing that occurs when an NCAA student-athlete signs their letter of intent to attend a particular college or university. They sign a binding contract for a specific period of time in which they are compelled to work for their university, and in return they are only given a “free” tuition, room, board, and equipment. Anyone and everyone but the athlete and their family can profit from the athletes work and they are not allowed to receive any kind of other benefits or it is a violation under the rules of the NCAA.

In respect to college football and basketball, 95% of the student-athletes are African Americans that come from non-wealthy homes. These athletes bring millions of dollars in revenue to their institutions and simply receive meniscal compensation. The worst part about it is their “employer” (the institution) can take away their scholarship at any time for any reason and leave the athlete with nothing to show for their talents.

How can any logical person think this is right at all? It is easily seen as slavery or indentured servitude. As Clay Travis stated here the NCAA is the most anti-capitalistic system of rules in our American capitalistic society.

The only justifications that the enforcers try to give are very similar to the arguments that people who were against the abolition of slavery tried to give.

1.    There would be a serious economic impact. They say that institutions could not afford to pay their athletes. Even though they are bringing the schools millions of dollars (with respect to football and men’s basketball)

2.    There would be wide spread chaos. They say that there would be widespread corruption and more benefits being given to players than allowed. Well, that is already happening now, and this would decrease that.

3.    They already have a better life than before. Here they say that they are giving them something invaluable, an education. They are not properly compensating them for their contribution of millions to the institution and that is not fair.

Its simple, this current policy by the NCAA is ludicrous and the leadership of the NCAA and schools are promoting an outdated sense of amateurism that is skewed to prevent student athletes from marketing their talents. These athletes must be properly compensated for their contribution to the institution.