Head Injuries in Football

With the Super Bowl being played on national television just a few days ago there’s a common reason on why some casual fans decided to change the channel and it wasn’t primarily because of Justin Timberlake. It’s a much more serious problem and it is the head injuries that either the players get during the games or years after they retired. They’re plenty of people who have decided to protest the NFL because of what they 

did to cover up information on CTE. I totally understand the reasoning and that was the reason on why I temporarily protested the NFL; however, there is plenty of information out there that the players can read and get themselves informed about the side effects of playing football long term. With the technology, access to the internet is easier than ever and we should let them decide for themselves on whether or not they should play football. We shouldn’t go around thinking that the players don’t know the effects and act like they are Truman Burbank from the Truman Show and pretend that they are kept in their own little world where they are fed lies. On the contrary, I do believe that we should make the game safer for the players so that they never have to experience these long-term diseases, and so that kids don’t play the game and develop these diseases early in their lives. I believe that kids shouldn’t play tackle football until they are in high school before they play they are told about concussions and CTE. I do believe that most NFL players know what they are signing up for every time they put on their helmet and step on the field. 

Standing up for the Right to Kneel

It's been close to a year since Colin Kaepernick decided to sit for the National Anthem. Since then there has been public outrage and various debates on whether or not NFL players should be allowed to kneel during the National Anthem. The NFL should allow the players to protest during the National Anthem because not doing so would be unconstitutional and they would be restricting the rights of the athletes.

People can disagree with the government, and some people express that disagreement by burning the flag. At one point, it was not allowed in this country. Gregory Lee Johnson set an American flag on fire at the 1984 Republican National Convention and he broke a state law for desecrating a flag. Gregory was fined and served some time in jail for his actions. He appealed the decisions and the case went to the Supreme Court. They ruled in favor of Johnson in a 5-to-4 vote, saying that a person has the right to disagree with the government by burning the flag (Brennan). The actions of both Kaepernick and Johnson’s can be seen as disrespectful of the flag, but they are protected by the constitution and they have the right to express their stance. The irony is that people who say that NFL players shouldn’t stand are using their free speech to tell others not to use theirs.

            

          Amanda Orlando Kesterson wrote an article for the Boston Globe on why NFL players shouldn’t be allowed to kneel. She claimed that NFL players shouldn’t be allowed to kneel because their actions represent the league and the team that they play for and once they put on their jersey they are an employee representing the team (Kesterson). Admittedly, their actions do represent the league and the team that they play for, but their actions off the field have more of a negative impact then what they do on the field. The NFL has an incredibly high number of players who encounter the law off the field and are ruining the image of their team and league. According to USA today since 2000, 870 players have encountered the law (Schrotenboer). To put that into perspective that is enough players to fill out 16 professional teams. The player’s actions will always represent them, the NFL, and the teams that they play for on and off the field, there is no denying that. The player’s actions off the field tarnish the NFL’s brand more than peacefully protesting. The NFL should worry more about the player’s arrest record instead of whether or not they kneel right before games.

            

           Another reason why people don’t support NFL players who kneel during the national anthem is that they disrespect the brave men and women who go overseas and fight for our country. Without a doubt, we should respect the men and women who fight and died for our country and treat them as the heroes that they are. However, the soldiers fight for our freedoms and one of those is the freedom of speech and the right to protest. Eric Ried is one of the first players to kneel alongside Colin Kaepernick. In an article on why Colin and he kneeled he said ,"It has always been my understanding that the brave men and women who fought and died for our country did so to ensure that we could live in a fair and free society, which includes the right to speak out in protest" (Reid).

         

Eric Ried and Colin Kaepernick (Ried on the left and Kapernick on the right) 

          The NFL should allow players to kneel during the national anthem because they’re protected by the first amendment and their intentions aren’t to offend any people who have served in the military. In addition, their actions off the field have a more of a negative effect towards the NFL and the team that they play for then peacefully protesting. Lastly, Roger Goodell the NFL commissioner has recently stated that he will allow players to kneel during the national anthem without any repercussions (Thomas). Kneeling during the national anthem is becoming a part of football and it is becoming more of a norm each Sunday all because of Colin Kaepernick. When Colin started to protest, he jeopardized his career and millions of dollars because he “stood up” for what he believed is right. He should be praised for his actions becuase he ignored the criticism sent his way and continued to protest. Would you be patriotic enough to do the same?

Works Cited

Brennan, William J. Collections . Vol. 11, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Kesterson, Amanda Orlando . “Should NFL players be punished for kneeling during the national anthem? - The Boston Globe.” BostonGlobe.com, 27 Oct. 2017, www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/north/2017/10/27/should-nfl-players-punished-for-kneeling-during-national-anthem/eLgCiNsJD2KdlLT2c8cunL/story.html.

Reid, Eric . “Opinion | Eric Reid: Why Colin Kaepernick and I Decided to Take a Knee.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Sept. 2017, mobile.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/opinion/colin-kaepernick-football-protests.html?_r=0&referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F.

Schrotenboer, Brent . “NFL Arrest-Database - NFL Football.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, www.usatoday.com/sports/nfl/arrests/all/all/all/.

Thomas, Jeanna. “NFL rejects rule change that would force players to stand for the national anthem.” SBNation.com, SBNation.com, 17 Oct. 2017, www.sbnation.com/2017/10/17/16465366/nfl-rule-change-stand-national-anthem-player-protests.

Why College Athletes Should be Paid.

College athletes around the country are working on the flaws in their game and trying to perfect their craft and for what? To make money for their school and the NCAA in which they get no money in return, and have to sustain good academics while working more than forty hours a week, all the while fearful that they can lose it in a heartbeat if they are injured. The NCAA has money to spare because it is a billion dollar industry. Being a college athlete is difficult already and they should be paid something but saying every athlete doesn’t get paid isn’t equal. 

            The NCAA, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, is a billion dollar industry that made most of their revenue from corporate sponsorships (Parker). The NCAA made $800 million from March Madness (Mama), a month long basketball tournament aired on national television, and they made 81% of that money off television deals and marketing (Jcoram). Colleges make millions of dollars off their athletic programs. To be exact, 24 schools have earned more than $100 million off their athletic program and Texas A&M earned $192 million off their program (Gaines). Schools make lots of money, but Mark Emmet, the President of the NCAA, said in an interview, “14 schools out of the 1,100 last year actually had positive cash flow [from] intercollegiate athletics. It’s anything but a money-making proposition for universities and colleges.” Schools have enough money they just spend it erratically, and by design schools. Schools purposely spend their money to make it seem like that they are not making money. Take the University of Alabama, a school that makes $148.9 million recently and just spent $9 million on their football locker room (Manfred) (Gaines). Inside the locker room, there are arcade games, a nutrition bar, a spa, pool tables, and a 30-foot long hot tub with four water fountains! (Manfred) (Dorset). Schools also pay their coaches handsomely because the average football coach is paid $1 million, and the highest paid coach is the University of Michigan’s coach Jim Harbaugh who gets paid $9 million this year (Mama). Schools have plenty of money to give the athletes and a number of hours they work to show it is a full-time job.

(Richard Sherman #9)

Managing an academic scholarship and playing a division one (D1) college sport is incredibly difficult. D1 Baseball has the longest season and the average baseball player practices 42.1 hours a week, basketball players give 39.2 hours, and football players give 43.3 hours a week (O'Shaughnessy). The athletes work around the same amount of hours as a typical 9 to 5 workday. In addition, as Richard Sherman, a football player who went to Stanford University, explained in an interview, he would wake up and do weights, and after weights, he would go to class. After class, he would get a quick bite to eat then he would have to go to meetings. Then he would have practice, and after practice, he would have to do all the work he was assigned in class (Volk). That was an average day for him and the amount of hours per week that they have to give is astonishing, and the effort they have to put forth to keep their academies up is outrageous, but it can all go away in a second if they get injured.

Kyle Hardrick

Some people claim that college athletes are paid with an education. One cannot deny that a full college scholarship is definitely worth something, but a college scholarship is hard to maintain when you work more than 40 hours a week and keep your grades up so you are academically eligible to play. When some schools go to March Madness or other tournaments student athletes may miss up to a quarter of their classes in the spring semester. (Edelman) College athletes don’t have enough time to balance being a student and an athlete. In some people’s cases, they can lose your scholarship if they are injured, such as, Kyle Hardrick, a basketball player, who committed to the Oklahoma University at the age of 14. He lost his basketball scholarship after one of his teammates fell onto his right leg, and tore his meniscus. Oklahoma would not authorize surgery for Kyle, but he later had the operation using his family’s insurance. The school didn’t renew his scholarship, and Kyle still suffers knee pains and is responsible for all of his medical costs (Strauss). Workplaces all across the country have some sort of health care for their employees and college athletes should have some health care, and if not that then they should be paid so that they can cover some of their medical bills.

If you play sports in college and you are very successful, schools can make money years after you leave. Take Patrick Ewing a former basketball player at Georgetown. When he played, Georgetown received 47% more undergraduate applications in the 1982-83 season and a forty-point rise in SAT scores during the next admission cycle (Edelman). Another example is Doug Flutie a former football player who played at Boston College. BC’s undergraduate applications rose up by 25% and their SAT scores increased by 110 points (Edelman). If the players aren’t being paid even though people come to watch them, it’s play is not fair. For years, the NCAA was making money off players likeness’s from their video games such as NCAA Basketball 09. Ed O’Bannon a former UCLA player sued the NCAA over the use of his likeness in the game back in 2009 (Solomon). In 2013, Ed O’Bannon received $15,000 from the case. (Solomon). Electronic Arts (EA) proposed a settlement that is up $40 million, which allowed some athletes to be slightly paid. The attorneys estimate players who appeared in video games since 2005 can be paid $166 to $951 for every roster appearance depending on how many people make claims. Some people think that the athletes should just be grateful for the fact they can play at such a high level.      

(Ed O’Bannon in the game)                                                         (Ed O’Bannon real life) 

Tom Van Riper wrote an article on why college athletes should not be paid and he makes some good points such as that there is no difference between college sports and his daughters CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) game and how parents would have to pay a dollar to get in (Riper). He argues that why should not his daughter be paid since she plays and people come in watch her play. However, there are some things wrong with this statement. No eight-year-old that I know works forty hours a week and has to manage academics. Secondly, CYO games do not fill up the stands and make millions of dollars. He later writes about how the NCAA helped Ed O’Bannon get drafted into the NBA. Yes, it did help him, but not every player makes it to the professional level. It is unlikely that the athletes are going to play on the professional level because 1.6% of kids get to play football and 1.2% from the NCAA to a professional league in basketball (Last Week Tonight). Some other people might just say that they agree that since they agree to the rules they should just do nothing about it.

            Some have argued that people shouldn’t complain because they sign the rules calling them amateurs, but the rule book they agree to is 440 pages long and filled with finicky rules (Last Week Tonight). Look at Stevie Tu'ikolovatu's case; he played in Utah and later transferred to USC. He arrived to practice early, but the NCAA prevents schools from providing benefits until a player is officially enrolled which meant he did not have a place to stay for the two months. He and his wife had to sleep in the car for two months, and for Steve,this might be uncomfortable because he is six foot one inch and three hundred and twenty pounds (Mott). There might be a way in which we can pay college athletes fairly across the board.

Stevie #96 

            One solution is that you pay division one athletes minimum wage plus commission during their season. “Who will get the commission?” you might be asking. That will be decided from ticket sale and attendance. Whoever brings in the most fans and money will get the higher commission. If this was to happen, college basketball players and football players will most likely earn the most money because they are the ones who bring the fans in and TV sponsorships (Wilbon). You might think this is not fair, but if you imagine a car dealership, there are two sales people, and one of them sells more cars than the other, don’t you think this would be fair to pay more to the one who sells one more. If anything, this might push the other athletes to win more, get that extra fan in, and sell more tickets. Furthermore, division two and three athletes would only get paid minimum wage with no benefits. I say this because I think it will push kids to work harder for that division one scholarship.

            Clearly, change is needed because the NCAA is an industry that earns billions of dollars, and does not pay the athletes. Schools benefit from great athletes years after they. The athletes work on their game for longer than the average workweek and have to get passing grades in their classes, or they will not play, or if they are injured, they will just lose their scholarship. The NCAA is an industry that does not pay their athletes to play, and the athletes agree to play, but they should not agree to this unfair treatment.

Citation

Dorset, Kenny. "Inside Alabama's New Amazing Football Facilities." Bleacher Report. Bleacher Report, 26 Apr. 2017. Web. 09 May 2017.

Edelman, Marc. "21 Reasons Why Student-Athletes Are Employees And Should Be Allowed To Unionize." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 06 Jan. 2015. Web. 12 May 2017.

Gaines, Cork. "The 25 schools that make the most money in college sports." Business Insider. Business Insider, 13 Oct. 2016. Web. 08 May 2017.

Ganim, Sara. "UConn guard Shabazz Napier on unions: I go to bed 'starving'" CNN. Cable News Network, 08 Apr. 2014. Web. 16 May 2017.

Jcoram. "Revenue." NCAA.org - The Official Site of the NCAA. N.p., 22 Nov. 2013. Web. 08 May 2017.

Last Week Tonight. HBO, 2015. Youtube. Youtube . HBO, 15 Mar. 2015. Web. 16 May 2017.

Mama, Raman. "Viewpoint: College athletes should be paid." USA Today. Gannett Satellite Information Network, 24 Dec. 2016. Web. 08 May 2017.

Manfred, Tony. "Alabama's New $9 Million Football Facility Is Like Something Out Of MTV Cribs." Business Insider. Business Insider, 22 July 2013. Web. 09 May 2017.

Mott, Bonnie . "Stevie Tu'ikolovatu's journey: From living in a car to landing a job in the NFL." USA Today. Gannett Satellite Information Network, 10 May 2017. Web. 17 May 2017.

O'Shaughnessy, Lynn. "Do College Athletes Have Time to Be Students?" CBS News. CBS Interactive, 18 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 May 2017.

Parker, Tim. "How Much Does the NCAA Make off March Madness?" Investopedia. N.p., 13 Mar. 2017. Web. 10 May 2017.

Riper, Tom Van. "Sorry Time Magazine: Colleges Have No Reason To Pay Athletes." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 06 Sept. 2013. Web. 16 May 2017.

Solomon, Jon Jun 6, 2014, Jon. "Timeline: Ed O'Bannon vs. NCAA." CBSSports.com. N.p., 02 June 2015. Web. 15 May 2017.

Solomon, Jon May 31, 2014, Jon. "Current NCAA players could benefit from video game settlement." CBSSports.com. N.p., 02 June 2015. Web. 15 May 2017.

Strauss, Ben. "A Fight to Keep College Athletes From the Pain of Injury Costs." The New York Times. The New York Times, 24 Apr. 2014. Web. 11 May 2017.

Volk, Pete. "Seahawks slam NCAA." SBNation.com. SBNation.com, 30 Jan. 2015. Web. 11 May 2017.

Wilbon, Michael. "College athletes deserve to be paid." ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, 18 July 2011. Web. 18 May 2017.

Mahershala Ali a Man with Many Talents

Mahershala Ali at St. Mary’s

Before the glitz and glam of being a Hollywood star, most people know Mahershala Ali for playing Juan in Moonlight or playing Remy Dalton on the House of Cards on Netflix and Cornell ‘Cottonmouth’ Stokes on Luke Cage on Netflix. Everyone knows Mahershala Ali as being the first Muslim to win and Oscar, but he was also the first Division 1 college basketball player to win an Oscar.

Mahershala Ali stats 

Ali attended St. Mary’s (CA) on a basketball scholarship and played four years as a guard under his given name Mahershala Gilmore. His stats might show why he did not dream of going pro and playing in the NBA. Ali’s life changed when his father died during his junior year and he spent that time becoming an artist, and when he finished his time at SMC he started to dislike basketball.

“I went to SMC on a basketball scholarship. But when I graduated, I no longer thought of myself as an athlete. Honestly, I kind of resented basketball by the end of my time there.”

Good thing he spent this time into acting because his performances in all of his roles are incredible.

Latrell Sprewell’s forgotten career and what could have been.

For how far Latrell Sprewell’s career went was pretty surprising knowing that he didn’t start playing organized basketball until his senior in high school. When he was drafted, he had glimpses of what could have been greatness. The all-star is arguably a top three shooting guard in the 90s he could have been a great player, but due to personal issues, he will only be remembered for that and not the numbers he put up.

                In 1992, the Golden State Warriors selected Latrell Sprewell with the twenty-fourth overall pick. In his rookie year, Latrell Sprewell had a good year nothing that was eye-popping, but that said bust either. The warriors finished 34-48 and that landed them the tenth placed spot in the conference. Latrell Sprewell got on the all-rookie second team. With 15.4 points per game, 3.8 assists per game and

                The following year in 1993, Latrell Sprewell had a breakout year and so did the warriors they thought they found a star to build around and bring home an NBA title. The warriors had a record of 50-32. Latrell Sprewell played all 82 games and he had 21 points per game, 2.2 steals per game, 4.7 assists per game, and 4.9 rebounds per game. Charles Barkley and the Phoenix suns swept them the conference finals.

                During these two years, people saw greatness in Sprewell during his breakout year. That following year they thought different, but in 1998, the warriors finished with a record of 19-63 under Coach P.J. Carlesimo who we will get to later. Sprewell had many issues with Carlesimo. In just a few years, Latrell Sprewell went from a franchise player to a burden to the organization. The time leading up to this year Sprewell was in many problematic issues. In 1994, his pet pit bull attacked his own daughter and bit off his daughter’s ear! In 1995, he fought a teammate in practice went away came back with a two-by-four, and then threatened to come back with a gun. On December, first 1997 Latrell Sprewell got into an argument with P.J. Carlesimo after Carlesimo told Sprewell to “Put a little bit of mustard” on his pass. Sprewell threatened to kill Carlesimo and Carlesimo said, ''I'm right here.''. Sprewell grabbed him by his throat and teammates and coaches pulled him off Carlesimo. Around 15 minutes later, he came back while the team was practicing and lunged and punched Carlesimo in the throat.

Russ Bengtson interviewed Hall of Famer Allen Iverson and Iverson said, “As far as talent, if I could be one player, I wouldn’t be Michael Jordan, man. I wouldn’t take Michael Jordan’s game, I would take will Latrell Sprewell’s game.” Latrell Sprewell will only be remembered as the player who choked his coach and not by the talent he had or the numbers he put, he will only be remembered for his terrible choices. 

LeBron Finally Caught up to MJ

At age 31, you wonder where the MJ vs LeBron debate is. I think at age 31 LeBron wins because at age 31 both MJ and LeBron won three NBA finals. MJ does have one more regular season MVP’s over LeBron. However, at age 31 LeBron has been to two times more NBA finals than MJ. You can say that going to the finals and not winning does not mean anything but it sure is impressive and something MJ has not been able to do. LeBron has more rebounds by more than 2,000, and has 3,000 more assists, 4,000 more points scored, and finally more than a 1,000 more points in playoff games. In '84 MJ came into the league and won rookie of the year and his team lost in the first round of the playoffs. Next, he broke his leg and they were swept. He came back and they were swept again in the first round of the playoffs.

Losses in the semifinals:
                 Then you have to consider all the losses in eastern conference finals. For the first three years, MJ made the playoffs, the Bulls had a losing record. LeBron wins rookie of the year and the first two years they didn't make playoffs but they had to win a record. Then they lose in the semis in seven. MJ was making to the playoffs with losing records yet LeBron with winning records could not get into the playoffs. In addition, he beat MJ to the NBA finals in his fourth season. LeBron did not go and play college basketball and get preparation like MJ. At age 31 LeBron has been to the finals two times more than MJ, he got their faster. In addition, he took the WORST TEAM in the history of the league to the NBA finals. We look at only Michael’s rings and trophies like we should, but we should also consider how he couldn’t even pass the first round of the playoffs at one point.