PAY THEM!

The University of Miami, or "The U," is the newest team to find themselves on the hot seat for having their players receive inappropriate benefits while playing for the Hurricanes. Now I don't need to go into the specifics of who and how much, but this one seems big. The number I last heard was 72 players were involved in this. An ex-booster for the Canes, Nevin Shapiro, and jailbird (he got 20 years for busted Ponzi scheme) has recently spoken to Yahoo! news and let the info slip that he did everything for give these kids from giving them $1000 cash to to buying them prostitutes at strip clubs. This is another in what has become a long line of inappropriate behavior from big programs in the NCAA over the past year. You have THE Ohio State, USC and THE Cam Newton scandal, on top of all of this. Not to mention the countless basketball issues the NCAA has had as well. I think it's obvious what has to happen here, but I still continue to hear reason why it shouldn't happen; these kids need to get paid.....period. I have no idea why this is such a problem for those covering these sports? Last night, while I was listening to FOX Sports Radio, JT "The Brick" was on and a caller suggested that paying the players would make all of this go away (that caller was me BTW).  JT exclaimed "if you give a player $500 a month, do you think THAT will make them turn down $50K?" JT brings up a good point, and unfortunately he hung up on me before I could respond but no, a 20 year old kid will not turn that down.  But what it will do is give the institutions (Miami, OSU, USC, etc.) a leg to stand on.  I think the cover ups and  "turning of the blind eye" happens because a)they don't want to lose, and b) I think the coaches feel a responsibility to these kids; meaning they feel they should be paid too. Let's take Jim Tressel for example. Tressel makes millions of dollars to coach, star players who more than likely will suit up on Sundays. If Tressel is a coach in Tulsa or Colgate, do you think he's making millions?  I highly doubt it.  I'm not taking away from Tressel's ability, he's a great coach, but he makes millions because his players at THE Ohio State will make millions on Sunday in the future. Here's where the coaches responsibility to the kids comes in; I believe these coaches in the end have more loyalty to the players rather the institution and they struggle with the notion that we here at Ohio State or Miami are going to plaster jersey, T-Shirts, video games and magazines with the images of these stars, and expect them to just be happy they are getting this opportunity and this FREE education.  I'm sorry, but that's a raw deal. The only time I ever worked for free was as an intern, and that was for only 3 months; these guys are expected to do it for 4 years. So even though a $1000 a month stipend is significantly less than $50K in cash, it's a least a show of good faith from the institutions; a commitment to taking care of this player.

The other thing paying these players will do is take the responsibility of these scandals off of the schools and squarely on those who are actually involved.  How unfair is it that the kids who are playing at USC now must suffer the consequences for what Reggie Bush did 5 years ago? How unfair is it that the University of Miami president Donna Shalala (best name ever BTW, sounds made up) is being called on the carpet because maybe 80 of the over 75,000 students that have past through the doors at the University over the past 7 years took money of all measures from $1000 to $50,000; from a career criminal who snowed many people to the tune of $930 million dollars, for not knowing what was going on and not having control over this situation. Look, it's not hard to be one of thousands and take money without being busted for it.  People do it all the time.  For every drug dealer that's busted, thousands are still out there doing their thing.  For every prostitute that's busted, there are still thousands out there doing their thing.  Do we hold the Mayor or the Governor responsible? No, we tell them to fix it but, they don't face punishment like "The U" is about to. So if the players receive some sort of payment, I feel like it will relieve some of the pressure these coaches feel to protect these players from themselves.  The coaches will be able to honestly say to these kids "you get paid, why are you taking this money from XYZ, or free tattoos from XYZ" without feeling guilty about the fact that while Tressel or Kiffin sit there and cash their multi million dollar checks, they have to deliver a fairness and morality speech to the actual stars of these programs; the players. I believe the "turning of the blind eye" or the cover ups will go away with a payment structure for these kids. It has to happen to save the college sports. Kids who go to Ohio State to play football could care less about the "free" education they are receiving; it's about playing on Sunday. So if a Terrell Pryor can get some free stuff while he's biding his time in the minors, he's going to and not feel bad about what happens after he's gone.  Look at what is about to happen for Pryor; as of today he is now eligable to be drafted in the NFL supplemental draft with only a 5 game regular season suspension ahead of him.  Meanwhile he has left THE Ohio State in shambles. They are facing massive sanctions from the NCAA, recruits are thinking about jumping ship and they will no doubt have a very rough 2 to 5 year stretch all because of Terrell Pryor and his actions, and the actions of his head coach who ignored what was happening, risking his own career and his large pay day.  Why do you think Tressel would do that? Winning? I think Tressel could have gone 10 years without a BCS title and have no problem keeping his job in Columbus; he was loved there. My theory is guilt. Straight guilt led to the demise of one of the games best coaches, and most respected programs. Guilt because he couldn't look his star players in the face and tell them that they can't take money. Why does he feel guilt? Because he's right. Why wouldn't you pay the players if you are going to exploit them in such a way.  Do you know that the Gosselin kids got paid. They made $200K per season to just be kids. College football players get a "free" education to have their brains beat in every Saturday for 15 weeks or so; and they have to maintain a grade point average. Really? How does that seem fair.  A bunch of snot nosed 6 year olds banging $200K a year because their mom pumped out 6 kids at once and TLC decided to make a show about that, but guys with actual talent; who work very hard to maintain their talent and keep performing at the 2nd highest level make nothing? I know how much an education costs these days, but does it actually cost an institution anything at all to give away an education? If I were Pryor in the situation he was in, I think I would take the money, but that's just me; I have the moral high ground of a gypsy. But either way, if the university is paying the player, then they will not feel obligated by guilt and fairness to turn the blind eye, they can stand there and say "We are paying you, why are you taking money from somewhere else?" It will become a greed issue with the players and not a necessity or a sense of unfairness issue. The best way I can get this thought across is with a story from my childhood. When I was 13 years old, there was a store in my neighborhood called "Square Circle" which was a CD store up the road from me.  Now I used to get a decent allowance from my parents at that point and in general I never wanted for anything, but some of my friends would get more than me and as a 13 year old who was basically too young to work and too old to whine at his parents about stuff, I was stuck in a tough spot.  So my friend John (RIP) and I devised a plan to get some "free" cd's from "Square Circle;" steal them. You see, they had the most lackluster security system in the world at the time and another friend of ours got away with it without even breaking a sweat.  So we went all in on it, and it was very successful for us.  We may have possibly stolen 20 to 30 CD's and didn't intend on stopping anytime soon.  Well my brother, who is 9 years older than me, found out what was going on and had a conversation with me that I will never forget.  The gist of this conversation was that if my father were to find out I was stealing from anybody, not only would he beat my ass, but more importantly he would never GIVE me anything again; nothing. I sat and I thought about that. It was a massive insult to my father, your typical, hard working, hard nosed, work your fingers to the bone, middle class guy who busted his ass to give his kids all they could ever want, to steal stuff when this man was providing all I could ever want through his hard work. It was a world shaker at the time, and I immediately changed my ways.  So much so that I returned most of the stolen goods, anonymously of course, but they were returned nonetheless.
The point I'm making here is this whole thing becomes so much clearer to me if the players are paid. All the guilt and responsibility goes away from the institution and onto the players, WHERE IT BELONGS. Perhaps if we teach these young adults to be full adults, instead of letting them get away with murder and then punishing everyone they leave behind instead of them, things like dog fighting rings, massive drug problems and ultimately murder don't happen in the NFL.  These guys may go into the NFL with a sense of success; both on and off the field, and they will behave like adults. Then again, maybe I'm just fooling myself, maybe these kids will be doing the same thing no matter what happens, but at least if you're paying them, maybe you won't feel guilty for not covering for them. Then you owe them nothing.