At the end of her latest great column (in which she claims that the spectacles of Tim Tebow and OJ Simpson, the legend of Sullivan to Beasley, and even the miracles of Bo Jackson compare to the “space shuttle” that is Cam Newton “like surreys with fringe on top”), former Plainsman editor and syndicated columnist (and Charles Schulz biographer) Rheta Grimsley Johnson weighs in (at 250 lbs) on the issue of monetary compensation for college football players:
I’ve heard all the theories, jokes and snide remarks about Cam and his dad. I think the timing of the revelations explains more about what’s going on than any of the news reports. I don’t know what Cecil Newton said or did or what Cameron did or did not know. I don’t know, and neither do you. Not yet.
I know that college football is a boiling vat of boosters, money and hypocrisy. Those schools who can afford to be big-time are, the rest conveniently become scolds hiding in a library carrel and behind a Petri dish. Alabama during the Bill Curry years.
The only way to remove corruption from all the programs is to pay the players and quit pretending that academics are the reason these young specimens choose to sign letters of intent with one school or another. Saint Joseph Paterno might not agree, but many coaches would.
Cam Newton is at Auburn to play ball. And, by God, he’s doing it.
With it, Rheta finally shakes off the mantle of “The Bo Jackson” of Auburn journalism and becomes its Cam Newton… whose jersey she wore during the SEC Championship Game, the first she’s owned since her freshman year Pat Sullivan gear.
I kinda seriously disagree with paying players. They’re getting a full ride scholarship for the most part in order to play football. Now, if we wanted to change things and allow “football coaching” as a major or something like that, I could get behind that. But to me, they’re already getting paid.
To put it in a bit more perspective: I got a full-ride scholarship to Auburn, too. That full ride was paid for by the United States Government. And now I’m serving on my second overseas deployment in paying that full-ride back. Don’t get me wrong, I would stay in the military regardless of if they paid for my school or not. I love serving my country. But the fact to me is that payment for a university education should be payment enough. The unfortunate thing is that many of these players at every school are placed or forced into less challenging majors just to keep them eligible. There are arguments for and against both sides. But I think they’re paid enough, already.
Yes, I suppose we should point out that the opinions of Ms. Johnson on that particular issue do not necessarily reflect that of TWER. The main thrust of her column, though, is Cam’s awesome-ness.
I think we all agree, Cam IS AUsome!
If you could see the ridiculous amounts of money these players make for these programs and schools its hard to say they shouldn’t be paid. I think that paying them would worked into an invaluable learning lesson to the guys. If we could give them allowances and teach them how to manage their money I think it would be so valuable for these guys on down the road. You hear so many stories about players spending all of their money they get from signing with an NFL team, and I think that by helping players understand money management on a smaller scale we would in turn see them have a better understanding of it on a larger scale. Plus its not like these guys can go get a job and make money at school if they need to.
Paying them wouldn’t change anything. Somehow there would still be extra money given to the better players at better schools. There is never enough money. People always want more. It is unfortunate that these kids can’t get a job like other normal college students (I know they aren’t normal). If they were paid anything other than minimum wage it would be considered improper benefits and I’m sure the coaches would frown on them working when they could be brushing up on the playbook or something sport related while not technically at practice. The sad thing is that alot of players come from poor economic backgrounds and often have alot of siblings at home that could benefit (food, clothes, and shelter) alot from the extra income rather than watching older brother driving that new tahoe. In the end the only way to fix the problem is to strip all the colleges of their sports programs and make them minor league teams, but then the universities would lose the revenue and the NCAA would cease to exist.