| Ryan White |
 | 0 Comments |  | 34 Read | Mar 08, 2007 |
Alright, here we are with the first lectureâ? coming from fanzak, and I would like to take a moment to send off this season s (graduating) seniors and others. During the season there will be a much more concerted focus on active teams and ongoing controversies, but, in the downtime that is the space between January and the opening kickoff we ll have the opportunity to discuss other things. When I was beginning this post I meant for it to be a good luck send off to former University of Maryland running back, Josh Allen, but it morphed into something a little more cynical (which will often be the case).
As a graduate student and activities class instructor at the University of Maryland over the past five years, I ve gotten to know several football players in the context of the classroom or in sports other than football. For instance I have worked with the likes of NFL linebacker D Qwell Jackson in basketball, backup QB Jordan Steffy in golf, and cornerback Josh Wilson in bowling. In addition I have assisted many others in the sport and society course that I TA there. For the most part these kids are well mannered, and driven to succeed, but, I would argue, unfortunately success is not easy in the system they operate in. While many would argue that getting a free educationâ? for playing football is more than enough, I would like to take that apart that notion and use Josh as a particular example of how this is not necessarily true
You all may know Josh Allen as a player, since he once ran for over 200 yards against Clemson in 2004, and was on pace to become a superstar for the team in 2005 until the game against Florida State. During the game, in which Maryland finally was able to upset FSU, Allen tore his knee up badly and was sidelined for the 2005 season. In the classroom, where the teams only rule is to pass enough credit hours to be eligible, Josh could have been in trouble. Luckily, for him, he had decided that academics were a bit more important than his team did, and he had dedicated himself to graduating in Kinesiology. I still remember the summer golf class that he signed up for, then came down sick one day and still attended in searing 100 degree heat. I told Josh that he could go home for the day, but he said no, worked on his game in 5 minute intervals, then would go lay down under the shade tree. That s the kind of dedication we don t hear about on Saturday s where getting the next multi-million dollar payday (for the school, coach, and athlete) is more important than the (free) education these kids are getting.
What I mean by that is that since these kids are only encouraged to take enough credits to be eligible, and the classes that they can take are restricted (no classes during the season after 2, and in the spring nothing between 2-6) education is NOT the most important part of a college football player s life even though they are at an educational institution. In other words your education is freeâ? (if you are lucky enough to be on scholarship), as long as you take courses at designated times, and are able to fight through the extreme fatigue of having to get up at 6 a.m. to lift then attend 2-3 classes in a row. My heart saddens every time I see a football player in my class, that I know is highly intelligent, but cannot keep his eyes open because of his (warranted) focus on playing football and pleasing his coach. If you don t believe what I am saying about the lack of focus on education think about this: Ohio State just spent 2 million dollars on shining their football field, while notoriously sending off some of the most legendarily undereducated non-student athletes (Andy Katzenmoyer, Maurice Clarrett, David Boston, Dan Wilkinson all have been pegged as having less than stellar academic careers). If that doesn t put into perspective how little these kids futures mean to their coaching staff, and the school, then I don t know what does.
College football then, is not this space of American Dreamâ? opportunity, but rather a war of attrition through which few survive. Sure some make the NFL, and some graduate, but many others do not, and end up back home with nothing to show for their academic/athletic talents because they were forced to focus so much on football. So while, my least favorite coach in college football, Joe Paterno, and others may argue otherwise, I liken college football to a book I read in high school called The Jungleâ?. In the book Upton Sinclair writes a tale about a young healthy Lithuanian family who comes to United States and its (mythical) land of meritocratic opportunity. What they find however, is that the United States is more of a place of exploitation than opportunity, and the main character Jurgis loses his wife, and son due to the fact that there were no social safety nets in the society at the time similar to the fact that there are few safety nets in college athletics. What I am arguing then is that we need to rethink this system. If we are educational institutions then education should be at the forefront of student-athletics, not this minor league football exploitation camp that college football has become.
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