Late, late newsflash coming your way…
On Dec. 26, 2010, ESPN.com posted this to their website: “Welcome to Tattoo U. What started out as a trip to a Columbus tattoo parlor by a couple of football players has created all sorts of mayhem for star quarterback Terrelle Pryor and Ohio State. Pryor and four teammates were suspended by the NCAA for the first five games of the 2011 season for selling championship rings, jerseys and awards…‘I learned more about tattoos than I ever really want to possibly know,’ athletic director Gene Smith said. ‘As a student-athlete, you’re not allowed to use your persona to get discounted services.’ The NCAA said all can still play in the Sugar Bowl against Arkansas on Jan. 4 in New Orleans. Ohio State’s first five games next season are against Akron, Toledo, Miami, Colorado and Michigan State. Ohio State plans to appeal, hoping the number of games might be reduced.”
In my opinion, the National “Corrupt” Athletic Association, commonly referred to as the NCAA, almost invented the saying, “Don’t do as I do, do what I tell you to do.” It often seems that many of the regulations administered by these “purveyors of flesh” were drafted somewhere deep in the dark bowels of the earth. The aforementioned and unnecessary “fraud case” leveled against Pryor, Ohio State and four of his teammates more than eight years ago for selling championship rings, jerseys and awards was and remains a tragedy, and a travesty, and ranks as one of the most blatant hypocrisies that I have ever witnessed in the world of sports.
Let’s go back to that quote. “As a student-athlete, you’re not allowed to use your persona to get discounted services.”
What?
If it looks like bulls—t and smells like bulls—t, I would suggest that you believe your sense of smell and vision and leave your taste buds out of it. For years you had NCAA resident coaching gangsters like University of Louisville men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino and the headmaster of the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Jerry Tarkanian, running their hoops programs as if they were the rival gang leaders.
On April 2, 1998, Larry Stewart of the Los Angeles Times wrote this: “Tarkanian, NCAA settle for $2.5 Million. It’s over, finally, and Jerry Tarkanian has been vindicated…The NCAA has reached a $2.5 million settlement with the beleaguered basketball coach. The NCAA will also issue a conciliatory statement at a news conference at a Downtown Los Angeles hotel this morning. ‘I learned you never want to fight an organization that powerful. They control the press. They spend more money on public relations in one month than I make in a lifetime,’ Tarkanian said.”
Meanwhile, this past October, Tracy Connor posted this on nbcnews.com: “The University of Louisville fired legendary basketball coach Rick Pitino on Monday, nearly three weeks after the school was implicated in a national bribery scandal. ‘We simply felt this was in the best interest of the university,’ Greg Postel, the college’s interim president, said after the unanimous vote by the athletic association board, which capped six hours of closed-door meetings. Pitino…who led the team to a national championship in 2013, fought to stop the school from terminating his contract, which still has $44 million left on it.”
So…this “thug” Rick Pitino was allegedly caught cheating and he still wants $44 million? However, the National “Corrupt” Athletic Association makes sure that none of the young men that play the games are even entitled to a free haircut?
Remember, boys and girls, if it looks like and smells like ginger ale, don’t expect Moscato.
Let’s take a snapshot of the past. According to its own website, the NCAA says: “The NCAA did not acquire significant powers to enforce its rules until 1942, however, in 1952 it began regulating live televised coverage of college football in order to protect game attendance in the stadiums.”
But, an article posted on huffingtonpost.com by Dan Treadway titled, “Why Does the NCAA Exist?” gets to the root of the origin and the “supposed” purpose of the NCAA. Mr. Treadway writes: “The NCAA was founded in 1906 to protect young people from the dangerous and exploitive athletics practices of the time,” so states the National Collegiate Athletic Association. “The NCAA often likes to harp on tradition and the sanctity of the term ‘student-athlete,’ but it fails to recognize its true roots. The association in fact got its start because, at the time of its creation, football was in danger of being abolished as a result of being deemed too dangerous a sport. During the 1905 season alone, 18 college and amateur players died during games. In response to public outcry, Theodore Roosevelt, an unabashed fan of the sport, gathered 13 football representatives at the White House for two meetings at which those in attendance agreed on reforms to improve safety. What would later become known as the NCAA was formed shortly after on the heels of this unifying safety agreement. Why does an organization formed when the idea of paying money to attend a sporting event was in its infancy still operate under the same (now completely out-of-context) model? In short, why does the NCAA still exist?”
This next bit of info bears repeating. “The NCAA was founded in 1906 to protect young people from the dangerous and exploitive athletics practices of the time.”
Thus, how did the NCAA evolve from an organization based on upholding and maintaining the safety of young college football combatants, to upholding and maintaining the sanctity of their own pockets? When the NCAA took over as the true regulator of college athletics (especially postseason competition) in 1942, our country was a key player in a global conflict called WWII. America was focused on survival, not athletics. The NCAA burglarized the psyche of American athletics by sneaking in the back door and began regulating and controlling all aspects of college sports from steering and manipulating the competition pool as well as the television, radio and print media, cashing in on a very substantial windfall while simultaneously tightening the noose of poverty around the necks of the so-called “student/athletes.”
America was vulnerable, being victimized by an unpopular war and the National “Corrupt” Athletic Association made sure that college athletics provided social diversion to help soften the wounds of war. After the war ended, the NCAA made sure that however archaic they were their rule of law should never be questioned.
Athletes had better not accept a burger…yet the NCAA can use millions of “indentured servants” dollars to be dedicated to legal costs just to defend the organization from itself. Also, the money grubbing culture promoted by the NCAA is unmatched by any other governing body in the world of sports.
Even NBA superstar LeBron James was quoted in Sports Illustrated in saying last month that “I am not a fan of the NCAA. The NCAA is corrupt, we know that. Sorry, it’s going to make headlines, but it’s corrupt.”
Take, for example, the University of Pittsburgh. The school just terminated the contract of their inept, incompetent men’s basketball coach Kevin Stallings after a miserable two-year stint. Pitt seemed OK with giving Stallings $10 million in severance pay (even though they’re now trying to not pay him the entire severance), but a player can’t even get a free plane ride home? Can u believe that?
Pitt or any other university wouldn’t be so quick to give away money to “bum” non-performing coaches if they had to compensate the players. Such nonsense gives new meaning to “March Madness.” Kevin Stallings didn’t play one minute and coached as if he was sometimes in the “twilight zone,” yet someone thought it was OK to give him $10 million for doing a horrible coaching job.
Pitt lost every game that they played in the ACC in 2018! Does that matter? Oh, I forgot, when you have free labor you have more disposable income so no, it probably doesn’t matter.
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