Quote:What?  There are plenty of people with physically demanding jobs who take on a full college workload, some of them MORESO than ball players.  There are people all over the world who would kill for the opportunity to have a college education paid for, and it's ridiculous that athletes waste it.  It's their fault they have eighth grade reading levels--how dare people blame the school for the kid placing a higher value on athletics.

 

It's a ridiculous system.  What needs to happen is a D-league for the NFL where these people can go try their luck making it on their athletic merits alone, since they're squandering the oportunity to get a high quality education that could open doors for them when they blow out their knees or don't last on an NFL roster.  Give it to people who will appreciate it.

 

The kid placing a higher value on athletics?!?! Nobody in the whole system cares a damn about academics! Who offers him a scholarship? That's right, the college who doesn't give a crap about the fact this person has nowhere near the academic ability to do a degree and only wants this kid for his ability to play football and make them money. Educational establishments are offering places to kids who cant read or write ahead of clever hard working kids because they can play football. So who is valuing academics above athletics?

 

What people mean when they say 'they would kill for the opportunity' is 'I wish I had the talent they have'. Would I do Robert Downy Jr's job for 1/500th of the money? You're damn right I would, but I don't have what he has. If I did, I'd demand the same money he gets. Would I have played college football for a free degree and been happy about it? You're damn right I would, but I'm a short, out of shape, terminally average football player. If I'm Jonny Manziel and making bank for TA&M maybe I'm not so happy about getting paid in the form of a scholarship I don't want/need/have the academic ability for.

 

When you say plenty, its still a very small % of people who get degrees while working because (especially if you are doing both full time work and full time college) its extremely demanding. Its like brain surgery, just because some people can do its not a reasonable expectation of everyone.

---