I have reached my tipping point where the players and ESPN stupidity has pushed the topic too far.
Arian Foster came out and said he took money his senior year because he HAD to pay rent and buy food. Who the fuck does he think he is? He was a scholarship athlete at a major college and his rent and food is paid for!!!! 100% by the university. He could eat at the Student Union until he was as fat as I am. He said that there is nothing wrong with what he did. This is also not true. Collegiate sports are amateur sports. They are paid quite handsomely in the fact that they get a college education, food, books, a place to live, travel to great places around our country, and the joy of playing college sports. This does not account for the fact that, if they take advantage of the schooling they can build a solid life and career.
If they have to support a family back home then they should leave school. Any normal person would not have the ability these players have, many good students and good people miss out on college simply because they cannot afford to go.
Here are some facts:
There are over 10,000 Division I football players and only 224 will be drafted into the NFL where they average career is under 3 years. The NFL has only 1,700 players total at any one time.
There are over 5,250 Division I basketball players and less than 60 will be drafted into the NBA. There are only 450 NBA players at any given time.
Most Division I football programs LOSE money. Paying athletes a salary will end college sports and it will never happen.
Most college kids struggle if they don't come from very rich families and many go into obscene amounts of debt to pay for it and their college experience is considerably deminished compared to an athletes life. I have only mentioned the top 2 sports as most colleges have many more athletic sports with scholarship athletes who will not go pro and live under the same conditions the football and basketball players do.