Finally someone says the sad truth..
Today I heard a college athlete at a "prestigiuos" athletic university say something that I am sure that most people in this country think. Cardele Jones, third string quarterback at Ohio St. University is being quoted as saying," why should we have to go to class if we came here to play football, we aint come here to play school, classes are pointless"!!! Now I added the exclamation points for emphasis. Clearly most people will point out the poor word choice and lack of grammatical integrity in his statement as a reason why he needs to go to school. The fact remains though many people around the college athletic profession I am certain have heard that sentiment. Most of these athletes are not going to college to get an education. They are going to school to enhance their ability to play professional sports. The unfortuneate reality is that not everyone gets an opportunity to play professional sports.
Espn aired a documentary called "broke" this week and the timing of the statement could not be better to explain why you need a college degree. Most young athletes think that they are going to be rich forever when they sign that contract and it is not the case. The NBA and NFL have put rules in place that limit the amount of money the rookies can make and have made contract improvements or raises only implemented after 3 or 4 years in each league. Gone are the days when a rookie can come into the league and get a 8 year, 60 million dollar contract. The new collective bargaining agreement has put a crimp into that. What Mr. Jones does not realize that is the average NFL career is 3and 1/2 years and the only money that is guranteed is a signing bonus. There are several sad tales of athletes who got paid under the old system and don't have any money left to live off of because of frivilous and loose spending. Iam not going to name names, but ESPN put out a list of athletes who filed for bankruptcy over the past 15 years and the list is shocking. Not everyone is Shaquille Oneal, Micheal Jordan or Cal Ripken. LLife does not end after your athletic career is over. You need to be able to take care of yourself and you family beyond your twenties and thirties.
Universities are now being punished for not graduating players. The NCAA passed a rule a couple of years ago that if you are below standards, you will not be able to play in the NCAA basketball tournament or benefit financially from the success of that. Some people speculate that Connecticut being placed on that list for this upcoming season is one of the reasons why Jim Calhoun retired. I laugh at the basketball portion of the NCAA because they allow for athletes to leave college when they 19 years old to pursue professional careers. Most athletes that know that they are going to leave school early stop going to class after spring break or the NCAA tournament. Why should they go to class if they know that next year they are not going to be there right?
YOU need to go to class young fella!!! Most adults will tell you the hardest part about life is that nothing last forever and you have to spend a lot of your life re-inventing yourself and finding out ways to earn money. The documentary "broke" showed the after affects of playing football for some of these guys because they were not only financially "broke", but spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically "broke" as well. Enjoy being a young man. Enjoy learning about life instead being forced to live life. I hope someone can reach him and tell him that he is one tackle in practice away from working at a clothing store or McDonalds. There is nothing wrong with those jobs, but I gurantee you he did not go Ohio St. to do that.
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