Jonathan Lipnicki Nearly Unrecognizable After Experiencing the Radical Process of Aging
Jonathan Lipnicki Nearly Unrecognizable After Experiencing the Radical Process of Aging
With news outlets busting at the seams and stitches over Renee Zellweger’s face, I can’t help but wonder if reporters far and wide have missed the bigger mystery:
What the hell has happened to Jonathan Lipnicki?!
You know, the kid from Jerry Maguire, who didn’t just steal Jerry’s heart but ours too when he played Ray, the adorable, bespectacled son of Renee Zellweger’s character, Dorothy.
I'M NOT CRAZY: Why College Athletes Should Get Paid
So in the last two weeks, I've had three (one semi-heated, one heated, one subdued) debates regarding why I think College Revenue Sport Athletes should get paid. It's incredibly hard in the heat of the moment to relay all my points in a clear way that actually makes my seldom agreed with opinion seem plausible. I want to preface this piece with the fact that all the debates were with very knowledgeable sports fans that I have an immense amount of admiration and respect for. The notion of paying college athletes seems more taboo than topics like cheating scandals in sports or steroids in sports. I'm not saying my opinion is the best, but here are some reasons for why I have the opinion I have:
Last year the NCAA and CBS/Turner Sports signed a deal for March Madness Coverage from 2011-2024. That deal was worth $10.8 billion.
ESPN also signed a four year deal with the BCS which totaled $500 million.
NCAA Revenue Sports (College Football and Basketball) generate $6 billion in annual revenue which is comparable to professional leagues. Comparison: NFL ($8.3b), NBA ($5b), MLB ($7.5b), NHL ($2.27b).
The combined 2011 salaries of the top paid college football coaches was $53.4 million.
All of these figures show the immense amount of money floating around college sports that the athletes do not see. College athletes are driving a multi-billion dollar industry and are not seeing one penny of it. Major universities can play it off all they want by giving college athletes a scholarship and a place to live as if that somehow is comparable to the money they are putting in their pockets.
College coaches sign multi-million dollar deals every day. Some people have brought up to me the argument that money will corrupt the players and hurt the sanctity of the game. Well, why does this only hold true for players? Why didn't Urban Myers 6-year, $24million deal at Ohio State hurt the purity of collegiate athletics? Why didn't Maryland's 5-year, $17.5million deal with Under Armour hurt the purity of college sports? If people are so concerned about money corrupting the players, look around. Everyone else in the NCAA is swimming in it.
I'm not calling for college athletes to make millions of dollars. However, I personally believe in a capitalist society (the society we live in by the way), which is based around the notion that if you contribute to something, you deserve a piece of the pie. College athletes contribute the most and get the least in return. I personally do not think four years of schooling (which can be taken away if you get hurt or under perform), textbooks, a dorm, and some team clothes, equals the dollars that college athletes help bring in. Sponsors, Television Networks, Commissioners, Athletic Directors, Recruiters, Stadium Workers, Trainers, Coaches, everyone else in the chain of college sports is getting a cut of that $6 billion. Why shouldn't the players. Why can't a college player sell their memorabilia or a jersey to someone willing to pay them for it, but a school can sell a jersey for $60 in the bookstore and EA Sports can sell the players likeness in a video game and the player can't see a dime of either?
And we can talk about the benefit of a free education all we want but that is a veil as well. Universities don't seem to care about that education when they revoke your scholarship because you under performed or because you got injured. They don't seem to care about that education when you're barely squeaking by in a class but they tell you to practice hours a day in addition to working out and training. Do you really think the University is hurting when they give a college player a free ride. They are going to make that money back and then some way before your time playing there is over.
The NCAA is not stupid. Colleges are not stupid. They have an uninterrupted cash flow coming in and they are hiding behind the veil of purity. College athletes help to prop up this big business and they don't even have a collective group to speak on their behalf. Why pay college athletes if everyone else in the chain has to take a little less? Sorry to break this to people but... College sports are not pure! In fact, paying college athletes would probably clean the game up more and diminish petty scandals that only wind up in players who didn't do anything getting punished. If people are so concerned with college athletics being pure, tell the Commissioners, the AD's and the Coaches to do their jobs for free...Good luck with that one.
