By Chris Stevenson
This is the part where major media and the NCAA tear a page from Obama and avoid focusing on more immediate world-shaping issues, and deal with the gays. In other words the NCAA wants you to dwell on Michael Sam because they want you to overlook Kain Colter. You see, whether they like it or not the NCAA needs Sam, hell they probably wish they could make him eligible a couple more years. Don’t be surprised if you hear down the line that some NCAA official advised him to come out. Several weeks ago Colter-then the starting quarterback for Northwestern-signed union cards along with other players after forming the College Athletes Players Association (CAPA). A movement then started to spread from Northwestern to the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech called “All Players United.” APU logos were displayed on their uniforms during the 2013 season.
On January 28 Colter led his teammates and others to what could be Northwestern’s most important victory, a victory that could pave the way in changing collegiate sports overall in the long run. He marched his team to the Labor Relations Board in an unprecedented effort to have his team join a labor union. Colter was also joined by Leo W. Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers, and Ramogi Huma; a former UCLA linebacker and the new president of CAPA according to a story by the New York Times. Colter compared CAPA to the NFLPA, NBAPA, and called the NCAA a “dictatorship.” Ramogi-already the head of NCPA-then filed a petition while you were made to hear only about Mr. Sam, a hearing took place Wednesday 2/12/14, a certification of representative procedure, with the next hearing was scheduled for the 18th. The irony is that Northwestern’s football and basketball teams are better known for languishing at or near the bottom of the Big Ten (Now Big 12) conference during most of their years.
Among the issues Colbert raised during his testimony, most of us were unaware of the lack of good medical treatment for injuries, how he compares road games as business trips, game uniforms as work uniforms. Imagine the problems this would solve for oft-penalized schools like USC, Ohio State, Auburn. This is an issue I’ve written about and commented on years ago. College athletes see or read about all the money being exchanged, billions passing by them to and fro. Kain is bringing them to the table. This is totally unheard of. Change you can believe in.
The Friday (2/21) Chicago hearing saw NU Wildcats coach Pat Fitzgerald take the stand and testify against his own players. Whereas it was common-knowledge to anyone watching college sports that the head coach has power over a player’s scholarship, Fitzgerald stated it’s not their practice to pull scholarships. He claims to believe in the ideal of the “student athlete.” This was in direct contrast to a statement he made last year to the Chicago Sun-Times that being a student-athlete was “a full-time job.” His later clarification doesn’t go far with me either; “it’s a full-time job from a responsibility standpoint.” What full-time job isn’t? The term “student-athlete” stems from another battle over sports compensation that took place during the early-’50’s between the University of Denver and an offensive lineman for their football team named Ernest E. Nemeth. Back on 9/25/51 Nemeth went to the Colorado Industrial Commission to claim a whopping $26 because of a week he missed due to a spring practice injury. According to Ernest, the school was already paying him $26 weekly so that made him an employee, and a judge agreed so he won. NCAA executive director Walter Byers then began the phrase “student-athlete.” Another ruling saw him getting $11.87 a week for back injuries on 4/53.
The NCAA and MSM don’t want this kind of spirit to catch on regarding its players, simply because they don’t want to share the wealth. Much more convenient for them if you attack the NFL homophobic-culture than the NCAA’s colonial/slave culture. Obama’s bills have instilled so much cockiness in gays that hardly any of them are afraid to come out. This is why Sam has become a media darling. At this point it really isn’t bravery, 30 years ago yes, 20 years ago yes, 10 years ago, still yes. Today it’s a photo-op. I hope I’m wrong but Mr. Sam may be the sacrificial lamb in this plot to keep him as the face of daily news as long as possible, instead of putting news of the Kain Colbert, Northwestern U, and the CAPA at the forefront as it needs to be.
