Quote:That is completely the fault of the athletes themselves.  They have EVERY opportunity in front of them to learn whatever they want and as much as they want.  Many choose the easiest path possible.  Thats their fault.  They have every single right in the world to go to the dean of engineering and work out a schedule where they can graduate in 5 years with an engineering degree.  Or do pre-med.  Or prepare themselves for law school.  Whatever they want to do. 

 

Why do we feel the need to cling to this victim mentality?  You know how many people in this country would KILL for the opportunity these athletes have?  But many of them waste it on joke basket weaving majors because they dont want to put in the time and energy.  They'd rather cruise through school and study as little as possible.  And then when they realize they wont make it to the NFL and theyve spent the last 4-5 years screwing around and have zero job prospects, then all of a sudden "Im a victim, Im a victim, you made all this money, and I got nothing, Oh woe as me!!!"  What a bunch of crap.  They are given everythign and most of them waste it.  You can use that free educationt to learn a real skill, use alumni and career center to get you a real job, and then you are set for life.  But oh no, they're victims. 

 

 

I hate this 'people would kill for this opportunity' crap. If you have a talent with the potential to make money, its not luck when people will help you maximize that in exchange for a chunk of the spoils. This free education isn't a gift from a benevolent college, its the cheapest thing they can offer for the services of a football player.

 

College ball is a full time job. Although a tiny, tiny % of football players manage to do real degrees (and I admire the heck out of them) one of the reasons many others don't is because its not reasonable to expect any person, especially one who has nowhere near the academic ability to do any sort of degree, to work that many hours in a physically demanding job and then do a college work.

 

Pay the men what the deserve and then its up to them what they do with the money. As a professional, I work for money, if someone offered me a job where the remuneration was 'an opportunity', I'd tell them where to stick it.

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