An unnamed NFL executive unloaded on the college football system, and his comments seem pretty accurate.
Talk of paying college football players isn’t anything new, but it does seem to becoming more and more popular as time goes by. Ten years ago, I wouldn’t have supported it, but now I think athletes in college should be able to make some money in some kind of way or another. Well, there’s at least one NFL leader who feels a lot more fired up than I do, judging from some recent comments posted Thursday afternoon. (RELATED: American Athletic Conference Signs $1 Billion Deal With ESPN)
The anonymous executive said the following in part to Robert Klemko:
The NCAA, they’re all crooks. It’s extortion of these players, because they’re all beat up. They’re 22-years-old and we can’t draft him, or we knock ’em down the board and the doctor says we might be able to get one contract out of him. They’re never more marketable than the four years they’re in college. Their stadiums are bigger than ours and everyone paid $100 bucks to get in and $50 to park and the conference has a TV contract and there’s national TV and the players don’t get a dime? How in the world is this legal?
You can read his whole statement below.
Was talking to an NFL exec for another story and he went off on this tremendous rant on college football and amateurism that I have to share.
“This whole thing stinks…” pic.twitter.com/rQuixmVURo
— Robert Klemko (@RobertKlemko) March 21, 2019
My guess is that there’s a lot of people who feel the exact same way in the NFL, but wouldn’t ever go on record to say it. Let’s not forget that the NCAA pretty much is a free minor league system for pro football, and it doesn’t cost the league a penny.
These young men go out there, get their bodies crushed and most of them will never even sniff the NFL. They’re 30 with broken bodies and nothing more than a degree to show for it. If they take one penny in college, they could be suspended forever. (RELATED: Clemson
I’ve been to more college football games than I can count. Major college programs print money. It’s an ATM machine for the NCAA, and there isn’t a limit on withdrawals.
Again, the kids get nothing more than their scholarship and what’s included with that. They blow out a knee and never play again; too bad.
It’s really time for something to change because at this point the NCAA should really just be embarrassed with itself.
I don’t have the answers as to how we change the current system, but I know it has to change. Maybe, we should have some more NFL executives come out and just publicly rip the system. If the NFL demanded change, it could happen pretty fast.