A New Twist to an Old Argument

Perhaps the most perplexing part of the ‘should college athletes get paid’ argument is the notion that pundits forget that the word college precedes the word athlete.

The reality of the issue is that colleges make A LOT of money off of the kid’s name because of the amateur status of college players. That is irrefutable; yet the national conversation seems to be missing the practical implications of shifting student focus from academics to what they do on the field.

When a college athlete leaves school early without having the skills in (insert whatever major here) they are setting themselves up for failure; and just paying them for on the field prowess will not alleviate that.

Out of the 9,000 or so college athletes who play college football, roughly 300 of them are invited to the NFL combine and only 215 actually go on to become pro. That is 2.4 percent for those keeping score at home.

The percentage of NBA players who come out of college is even lower; less than one percent to be a bit more accurate.

The NFL Player’s Association website even says in plain English, “As you can see, most people who want to become NFL players will not. Therefore it is very important to come up with alternative plans for the future.”

The place for young adults to establish their alternative future plans is in college.

In today’s national conversation, both the institutions that make money off of them and the champions of college athletes forget that the chief reason they go to the University of wherever is to get a degree.

However, the young athletes are free to forgo their degree and declare for the NFL or NBA draft after one or three years respectively.

Considering that the average NFL career is three years and that the average NBA career is roughly six years, these kids will inevitably be thrown out into the world after making six figures a year with no idea how to do anything else.

To be clear, that doesn’t mean that the University of Notre Dame should continue to make almost 69 million dollars in football revenue alone without having to pay their student athletes a dime of it.

It is just that paying amateur athletes, in all sports, will not solve the greater problem of college athletes who wash out of the NBA or NFL not having any practical skills to acquire a new job.

If for whatever reason college athletes are allowed to get paid by their respective universities, there has to be a contractual agreement stating they cannot turn pro until they get a degree in the major of their choice.

With this prevision, college athletes have to go to class and graduate with the same 128 credits most universities require to get a diploma. Then if they want, they can peruse their dreams of becoming the next Peyton Manning or Michael Jordan.

Making college students graduate before they take the chance on themselves to turn pro is not, and cannot be viewed by society as, a punishment for going to college.

If the young adult wants to be a pro, and get paid for playing at the university of wherever, that badly then they’ll hit the books and get the degree to do it.

The most treacherous thing for student athletes is ending up in the abyss of those who failed to go pro and can’t do anything else.

Paying college athletes alone doesn’t help them escape that vortex, making them graduate before letting them try to go pro does.

Sports is why you Never Leave Early

We are all mortal, yet there is a process that injects life into the zombified husks sitting in their seats.

It happens when a pass falls perfectly into the hands of a rookie wide receiver in the waning seconds.  It occurs when a postseason savior hits a pitch into the bullpen. It may even happen in the last period of a doomed hockey game.

Because the fantastic comeback win can happen at any time, it is truly baffling to think that fans in the stands would willingly rob themselves of this experience by leaving early.

Thom Brennaman duly noted that there were members of the Foxboro faithful departing the stands in the final quarter against the New Orleans Saints. The home team was down by one point. The Patriots would go on to get three more cracks at stealing a game they had no business being in.

And yet a select few thought they could get a beat on the artery clogging traffic that would undoubtedly clog Route 1.

A similar mindset of beating the rush to Kenmore station had to occur to Red Sox fans on Sunday. Max Scherzer pitched seven incredible innings and fanned 13. The team had struck out 25 times through two games and looked overmatched completely to that point.

On May 13 there were most likely those who contemplated shutting off game seven between the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was a three goal deficit with half of the third period gone and the home team appeared to be skating through quick sand on defense.

It seems logical for the fair-weather to avoid the turbulence of their team faltering. They avoid the hardest part about being a fan because they can’t bear the pain of loss.

Yet for those who are willing to risk facing the hardest part of sports, there exists the reward of being faithful.

For example those who elect to stay at Gillette Stadium witnessed the opposition’s play calling head to hell in a hand basket. The Saints inexplicably forgot that they could run the ball against the Patriots; as a result they gave a man with 31 forth quarter comeback wins a shot at his 32^nd one.

The result of this was Tom Brady finding Kenbrell Tomkins in the back corner of the end zone with five seconds to go.  The muskets fired once more and the New England Patriots beat the New Orleans Saints by a score of 30-27.

Those who stayed for the eighth inning at Fenway Park saw Jim Leyland of the Detroit Tigers over manage his team as he called for four different  pitchers in one inning.

None of Leyland’s pitchers recorded an out until after David Ortiz hit a grand slam. All four runs came across the plate and  the homer gave light to a fantastic sports picture.

One inning later Jarrod Saltalamacchia drove in Boston’s bearded basher Jonny Gomes to give the Red Sox a 6-5 victory.

Yet the most improbable was that May 13^th day at TD Bank Garden. The Bruins faithful saw Milan Lucic, Nathan Horton, and Patrice Bergeron netted three goals to keep the Bruins season alive.

And in overtime the Bruins kept calm and Bergeroned as Boston’s favorite Canadian found the back of the net to complete the reversal.

While there are countless other cities where improbable comebacks occur, there will always be those who try to beat the traffic.

If these three improbable turnarounds taught us anything it is this: Never leave the stadium early because remarkable could happen today.