California Passes Act That Will Allow College Athletes to Get Paid, What Will Other States Do?

by with One Comment FeaturedSports

A couple of weeks ago, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed The Fair Pay to Play Act, which will allow college athletes in California to be paid for the use of their name, image and likeness. California schools will not pay athletes under the new bill, but athletes will be allowed to hire agents and seek out business deals. 

This is huge! 

Even if you’re not a fan of college sports… I’m sure you’re well aware that everyone from Bo Jackson to Zion Williamson has never received a dime (aka compensation) for their work and talent as a college athlete. Meanwhile, the NCAA has made billions of dollars over the years in profit based solely off their talents. 

Until now. 

And it matters that this act took place in California because it’s the largest state in the country in terms of both population and economic power. And… California has several powerhouse collegiate programs to draw top-ranked athletes, such as UCLA, Cal, and Stanford, all of which are worthy of 5-star athletes who might consider them over other programs like the University of Texas solely due to their personal income potential.

Unless… Texas (the second-largest state in terms of population and economic power) passes their own version. And to not be outdone by the lone star state… Florida… with its own large population with economic might not want students going to Texas A&M over Florida State. Not a coincidence, both Florida and Texas are hotbeds for college football recruiting. With everything else they have to compete with, are they really going to stand by and let their top athletes leave the state because of failing to compete legislative wise? 

That brings us to a crossroads, which eventually will lead to either one of two things… the NCAA steps in and fixes its serfdom-like ways with college athletes, OR… literally every state or the federal government as a whole will enact a federal “fair play to pay” act. 

This will inevitably open the grounds for student-athletes to finally get some form of compensation, stipend, allowance, or outright paycheck for the use of their name, image or likeness.

Call me crazy, but I think we’re long overdue for such a a common-sense correction.

What do you think?

The Language of the Soul: The Power of Sports

by with One Comment FeaturedSports

As I watched the kickoff to another college football season, and the ESPN special commemorating 150 years of college football, it occurred to me just how unique and special sports is to our culture and to people in general. While I admit I am diehard football fan who will start my Saturdays at 8 am (CT) with College GameDay and conclude it with the ‘Pac 12 After Dark’ game that ends around 1 am, my experience is not unique in communities and states where college football is king. In places like Alabama and Arkansas, college football is king. For places like New York, St Louis, Chicago, and states in the Northeast, that would be baseball. Regardless of what sports is king in your community, that sport possesses a power that nothing else (or no else) will ever have: the power to transcend and unite their community of fans.

In an era of extreme polarization, never-ending political boycotts, and practices of cultural & demographic contempt, it is exceeding rare to find instances where two people from opposite sides of every hot-button issue dividing their community and the country. Movies, TV sitcoms, political talk shows, and music have become increasingly tangled with tribalistic practices of the day. As media producers and content creators focus their marketing efforts on segments of the population or niche audiences and not the general population, the chance of a pop culture phenomenon that people from different warring tribes will agree to a rhetorical cease-fire has become non-existent. The one remaining opportunity that remains is something that has been part of the cultural antidote to our social ills for over a century: sports.

During the Great Depression, a baseball player sold to the New York Yankees, Babe Ruth, became a household name and inspiration to millions of people in desperate economic and emotional situations. His ballgames served as a momentary distraction for his fans in a way that nothing else was able to. Fast forward 70 years and you will hear two people: Sean Hannity and Keith Olbermann, who loathe each other and aggressively disagree on every issue of the day, tell the same story during the last World Series the Yankees were in, giving each other giant bearhugs in celebration after their Yankees won the World Series. Two men who despise each other and would be glad to use every profanity under the sun had a moment where none of those differences mattered. 

There are moments in sports that its significance exceeds the normal relevancy of the event. Whether it’s Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in 1947, to Texas Western University winning the NCAA basketball championship in 1966 against in all-white Kentucky team, to Tiger Woods winning the 1997 Masters. These events had a foundational impact on Civil Rights and race relations in general, and they all occurred through the prism of sports. Everyone who was alive when one of these moments occurred knows where they were, and what they were doing when it took place. 

These moments go to something much deeper. Sports has the unique ability to speak our community’s soul in a way that transcends our differences. When your team kicks the game-winning field goal, makes the game-winning three, or hit the game-winning home run with you sitting in the stands, do you care what color, gender, sexual orientation, or partisan affiliation of the fan behind you? You’re high-fiving everyone around you while experiencing a level of bonding euphoria that you will remember for the rest of your life. 

Sports can serve as inspiration during times of local or national hardship or tragedy. Whether it’s 2001 World Series weeks after 9/11, the resurgence of the Saints post-Hurricane Katrina, or the US Olympic hockey team at the 1980 Winter Olympics. These memories touched their fan’s souls at a time they need it. For me, that moment was at the A&M-Texas football game in 1999. Known as ‘the Bonfire Game’ for the 12 A&M students who died during the collapse of the bonfire stack during construction, it devastated the university. In a game where that structure was supposed to be set ablaze as a symbol of the burning desire to beat Texas, The Longhorn band played Amazing Grace as a tribute to the fallen students. For eighty-six thousand people in attendance, there was not a single dry eye in the stadium. For that day, and the remainder of the season, a team I had loathed and despised my whole life was no longer my mortal enemy, but my grieving brother. Speeches are nice, fundraisers can help meet the immediate needs of the people in need, but those transcending moments happen in ballgames.

As we look forward to another football season and the pennant races in baseball, we should remember and cherish the opportunities in front of us. At a time when it seems everything is viewed through the prism of being supportive or hostile to President Trump and/or his supporters/critics, we need to embrace the moments where our differences do not matter. These moments, no matter how fleeting, are where bridges can be built, and conversations can begin. I am not saying that it will solve the issues confronting us, but you can’t have a dialogue with anyone if you don’t have a line of communication, and there is no line of communication with better signal than sports. 

Similar Read: Professional Fandom: Donald Trump, Robert Mueller, Sports, and Pop Culture

Just Play, We Know What’s Best

by with One Comment Sports

Despite sports by design being inherently fair, the application and business of sports, is yet another subject of the jaded rules and positions designed to help few and hurt many. Though black players have become the face of the most popular sports in America, they seldom share the power when it comes to their respective sport. 

Sports, the actual play of the game, is by design based on meritocracy. Simply put, if you score the most you win. Except in Golf, but that’s why I don’t watch Golf – is Golf really a sport? Anyway, by sports, I mean competition against another human, and said human stopping you from scoring. So that does not include hunting, for the deer did not sign up to get shot, nor does said deer have anything to shoot back with. So, by sports, I mean Baseball, Tennis, Basketball, and yes even Soccer will count as a sport – all listed are inherently fair.

Once the game ends, there’s an entire business behind sport. The business of sports and its unfairness towards black people in positions of leadership has been a practice dating back to the inception of professional sports being one of great profit. For many black men and women in the business of sports, they’ve experienced an all-star performance from the perennial MVP candidate of racism. However, racism might be playing at a hall of fame level when it pertains to professional and college football.

Rolling Stone magazine did an outstanding piece on the mistreatment of black quarterbacks a few weeks ago. Their piece brilliantly highlighted the recent collusion of Colin Kaepernick by the league as just the latest in a long history of black quarterbacks going through treatment unparalleled to their white colleagues. While white quarterbacks who are products of the mediocracy factor stay in the league for years on end, black quarterbacks exhibiting the same statistical numbers or even better numbers lose starting roles, or their careers come to an abrupt halt. Black quarterbacks also have a smaller window of error than white quarterbacks. 

The most recent example was Tyrod Taylor of the Buffalo Bills being benched due to literally one game of poor play. By the way, the Buffalo Bills gave up 47 points on defense that game. But Head Coach Sean McDermott apparently had seen enough of Tyrod’s one bad game and decided to change his starting Quarterback in favor of his white rookie quarterback Nathan Peterman – though if the Bills season ended at the time they would have been in the playoffs. Peterman proceeded to throw five interceptions in the first half against the Los Angeles Chargers, more than Taylor had thrown all season, and despite the terrible performance Coach McDermott stated he saw “good things” from Peterman. He saw good things from a quarterback throwing five interceptions in one game over his starting quarterback who had the Buffalo Bills in the playoff hunt? A playoff berth this year would give the Buffalo Bills their first since 1999. Yes, that 1999, the same year Prince sang about and a year in which we listened to downloaded music from Napster at Boarders.

I cannot recall a time in which a white starting quarterback with a winning record was benched in the middle of a playoff race due to one bad performance for a rookie quarterback. This simply doesn’t happen to white quarterbacks.

It’s important to note this article is referencing only the quarterback position for a reason. For possibly in all team sports, the quarterback is the single most important position. It’s the one position in which all offensive plays start with. On a marketing note, the quarterback is the face of a football franchise. And on a football smarts note; the quarterback is supposed to be most cerebral of all players. The marketing and inherent leadership in which the quarterback brings is the crux of the reluctant reason in placing black players in that role. The same reasons why the NFL lacks black representation at the quarterback position, its younger brother, college football, employs the same practices regarding black quarterbacks. 

Countless black players are recruited in high school from top college programs as quarterbacks. Those players are offered scholarships many times on the contingency they change positions.

Why?

This is done for one simple reason, the primary college football fanbase. The most advent fans in college football are southerners, ironically the most recruits come from the south as well. College programs know their audience. Placing the typical 6’3 clean shaving white quarterback fares much better than the longer hair, or God forbid, dreadlock and/or braid wearing black quarterback.

The trials and tribulations of the black quarterback are one thing; but, it pales in comparison to the plight of a black head coach. The NFL has moved up a peg from laughable after the 2017 offseason hiring of the Denver Broncos head coach Vance Joseph and the Los Angeles Chargers hiring Anthony Lynn. Though roster composition in the NFL is currently 70% black, only 7 of 32 are holding the clipboard, Ron Rivera being Latino, brings the [minority] total to eight. These numbers are rather bleak given there are 32 teams; however, the numbers would be bleaker if not for the Rooney Rule. Instituted in 2003 and named after Pittsburg Steelers owner Art Rooney, the Rooney rule states teams are required to interview at least one minority candidate when searching for a new head coach. Attention is rightfully drawn to head coaches; however, the Rooney rule does nothing to solve non-head coaching positions. Look at the numbers… 80 of the NFL’s current 85 offensive coordinators, quarterback’s coaches and offensive quality control coaches are white, including all 37 with the word “quarterback” in their titles. See a pattern? 

When comparing college to the NFL, college is a much more ugly and unsettling. There are currently only 14 black head coaches in the FBS, which is Division I, a little under 11% of all colleges. 

What gives? Where’s the outcry and questioning on these lopsided numbers?

The numbers are no different in sports than in a sector like education. Most black students in public education are being taught with little representation by black teachers, especially black male teachers. A student is more likely to be taught by a unicorn, than a black male teacher, which makes up only 2% of the entire public-school system from coast to coast.

The numbers are horrendous and need immediate attention. The recent NFL player protest seems to be a stepping stone towards players finally placing a stake in the ground regarding their respect and voice to the owners and the fans. Despite backlash to the player protests, and possibly those protests being shaken up, football highlights are showing no signs of slowing down the showcasing of black players. Only time will tell if more black people end up behind the plays and decisions that make American sports so great.