(ThyBlackMan.com) There is very few issues in sports that have the lasting power of whether college athletes should be paid. It seems that only debates about Michael Jordan versus LeBron James, the safety of playing football, and whether alleged steroid users like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame engender more passion among people than whether college athletes should be paid or not. There is usually not people that “sit on the fence” regarding that issue. There have been increased discussion about collegiate athletes being about to profit off of their likeness due to significant proposals in California and now a prominent professional athlete is weighing in on college athlete compensation and more hypocrisy from college football programs.
In terms of contemporary names among socially conscious athletes, athletes like soccer star Megan Rapinoe and cultural figure Colin Kaepernick quickly come to mind. Current Carolina Panthers safety Eric Reid should also be thought of in that category. His arrival as a Carolina Panther during the 2018 NFL season had Panthers quarterback Cam Newton believing he would bring “outside distractions” because of Reid’s outspoken nature as a former member of the San Francisco 49ers and friend of Kaepernick.
Reid did talk but his on-field actions were quality enough that the Panthers resigned him following the season and he has emerged as the leader of their secondary. While no one player could replace what Colin Kaepernick symbolizes as a figure against police brutality against black people and injustices against black people, Reid has become a similar type of advocate with his language and knowledge.
Eric Reid is a former college football star for Louisiana State University, which is also known as LSU. He recently pointed out some hypocrisy of college football programs who say that they do not have the funds to pay players as his former school, LSU, unveiled impressive upgrades to its locker room, which will have sleeping pods and individualized TVs. Reid tweeted, “The locker room when I was at LSU 7 years ago was better than the current one in Carolina. But there’s no money to compensate these young men for the revenue they bring to the school #JustSaying”.
Coming from a person who fought against a system in court as he did when he accused the NFL of collusion, it is good that Reid decided to stand up for college football players who do not have much power. The players in college football are viewed as much less important than the college football head coach who can take their scholarships away at a moments notice.
It probably should not be too surprising that black people and white people view the issue of paying college athletes very differently. According to a 2017 poll, 54 percent of black Americans support paying college athletes based on revenue they generate while only 31 percent of white Americans support paying athletes. It is possible that because many of the high level athlete in the revenue-generating college sports of college football and men’s college basketball that most of the best players are black that white sports fans are against the possibly of paying college athletes. Of course, this is not because white sports fans are inherently racist or bigoted but there is likely some jealousy at work of the fame, luxuries, and exposure that high-level athletes get that gets multiplied by the money that a lot of professional athletes make.
Staff Writer; Mark Hines
