Pay to Play?

In light of the recent outcry of sexual harrassments by former Penn State football, I felt compelled to write about it.... sports. I know, I am a self-confessed sport, well hater is a strong word, but come on people we all know that I love certain teams and certain sports, but feel less than compelled to plant myself in front of the tube all day to watch 19 zillion games. But I do know a little about the law, so when sports (hub's fav thing) and law co-mingle I get excited!

The state of sports has been everything from perjury, can we say Barry Bonds, to paying athletes, Reggie Bush, but this is nothing new. For years colleges and universties have been buying and paying players. Think about it: athletes have different SAT score standards, GPA requirements, they get to register to for classes before everyone, and the university pays for them to have tutors! They never have to buy a stitch of athletic gear and rack up so many pairs of shoes and clothes they can be dressed for years after graduation. I mean I know that sponsors suchs as Nike and Adidas provide that stuff, but its the equivalent of paying them. Even worse perhaps is that some athletes manage to make money from playing via per diem.

When teams travel each athlete is provided with a certain sum of money to pay for meals, but yet ALL their meals are paid for (well at least at most major schools). Thus, these kids can bank!

Don't even get me started on the millions of dollars spent on TV! And granted, this is mostly college football, but baseball, basketball, they all do pretty well themselves. So its no wonder we have the problems we have. Nor should it come as a surprise that these same athletes get into trouble. They are mini-gods walking around with little to no consequences, neither do the coaches. The coaches make millions and teach their kids to be the same. And the media and even the NCAA does not do much to punish violators. Take USC for intance. They lost a heisman trophy and a season worth of wins, but yet they were featured on ESPN's College Gameday. What does this say? Sure your season may not count, but let's applaud you and feature your program for little ones everywhere.

So, people suggest we should pay them to play... well IMHO we already are. ~The Illegal Blonde