re: Jalen Tabor says college football is "Modern Form of Slavery"

I thought he played for UF, not the fighting shite swastikas?

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Of course not because the current cost/benefit structure does not encourage it. But if the cost/benefit structure was different?

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Let's say it is different. Let's say the NFL sets up a minor league system, much like Major League Baseball. Do you know what a minor league baseball player makes a year?

The average AAA baseball player makes $50,000 a year. Which do you think would benefit the college football player more? making $50,000 a year, or getting a free $40,000 education, stipends, COA? I think the education, if they decide to take advantage of it will serve them better.



The lawsuit portrays minor league players as members of the working poor, and that’s backed up by data. Most earn between $3,000 and $7,500 for a five-month season. As a point of comparison, fast food workers typically earn between $15,000 and $18,000 a year, or about two or three times what minor league players make. Some minor leaguers, particularly those with families, hold other jobs during the offseason and occasionally during the season. While the minimum salary in Major League Baseball is $500,000, many minor league players earn less than the federal poverty level, which is $11,490 for a single person and $23,550 for a family of four….

LINK

Coming out of High School, as a 19 year old, to play in a minor League for football would subject an athlete about 4-5 years of this pay.

As others have said, the market for football is under-served. In 2014, 45 million people were so starved for football that they watched a derivative of it: the draft. It's nothing more than old men talking on phones and holding up jerseys.

College football is one of the ways that demand gets filled. People pay to watch it. Networks pay to air it. Advertisers pay to show commercials during it. Bowl committees build years long traditions around paying colleges to have their teams come play an exhibition game. Colleges group together and sell off TV rights. Everyone makes money but those closest to the production of the good.

But, as others have said, if these are voluntary transactions it doesn't matter. And yet, for all practical purposes, it isn't voluntary.

As it operates today, College football is a scheme designed to enrich others at the expense of the athletes. The reason no one else starts an under 21 professional league is that there is liability for having fragile, rapidly changing bodies participate in such a violent sport.

The NFL doesn't want to deal with that, and they haven't since 1921, so they outsource it to colleges. In turn, the colleges pretend they are institutions of higher learning as a way to cut off debate about the morality of making money off a free labor pool.

So during the season, we get incessant propaganda about the lesser schools, kids with an illness, NFL stars who come back to get a diploma, and the like. Bowl games are presented not as a transaction between schools, fans, and the hosting city's business interests, but instead as an American institution. All of this is to hide the fact that college football is simply an exploitation of a cheap labor pool.

The remedy is to improve compensation on the college level and/or solve the under-age liability issue on the professional level. I have no good ideas for the latter, but some for the former:

Simply pay players an equal percentage of the revenue generated by the football program. Divide the yearly number by the number of games, and then divide the revenue for each game by the number of players in uniform. Take the player's portion of that money and put in a trust, which they can collect at age 30 or upon graduation, whichever is soonest.

Football is voluntary, slavery was forced. If he doesnt like the system, choose another way to go to college or dont go at all. Free country, all decisions we make have consequences.

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Football is voluntary, slavery was forced.

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Apparently you didn't read my post.

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If he doesnt like the system, choose another way

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What if he doesn't realize he doesn't like the system until he's 50?

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all decisions we make have consequences.

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That's why it's best to know the ramifications of our decisions up front.

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Is it any different than an 18 year old that goes into construction, coal mining, railroad work, a factory job, working on an oil rig, the military, or any number of occupations that can destroy your body or lead to death/serious injury?

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Yes.

What does OSHA have to say about the NFL?

Those jobs are risky, but in the NFL, there is no 'risk' of injury, there is certainty.

Even if you tell kids about the dangers, they still can't [process it because they're too young. That's why we draft them into our services in times of war. They don't understand the full consequences of their actions. I know I didn't when I was younger. I was untouchable.

Kids at the college level are well aware of the risks now. Your argument doesn't work. You just had a pro bowl linebacker for the 49ers quit 2 years ago before a contract year where he stood to make some serious money because he didn't want the injuries.

There is plenty of concussion awareness and those college kids are not so stupid to know that running into other humans at high speed has risk.

Just stop.

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The reason no one else starts an under 21 professional league is that there is liability for having fragile, rapidly changing bodies participate in such a violent sport. 

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There is ALWAYS liability even above 21, and colleges have no problem with current liability issues using under players under 21. Unless you can show some statutes prohibiting a league, the ONLY reason there isn't a straight out of HS league is bc no investor feels these "kids" market value is enough to invest in another league.

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Kids at the college level are well aware of the risks now.

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Not really, they think they are, but they won't really know until later.

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those college kids are not so stupid to know that running into other humans at high speed has risk.

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They are told of the risk, but it doesn't really sink in. Some try to rationalize it by thinking the money will compensate for it.

You know what the difference between the young and old is?

The old know what it's like to be young.

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Just stop.

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A little over sensitive are you?

I'm not saying they are slaves, I'm not even saying they don't receive compensation. But I do think they end up paying far more than we give them credit for. It's not like they have it made or something.

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What do you think his life will be like when he's 60?

He's paying a price, he just doesn't know what it is right now. I had a gym coach in high school who was an NFL LB, and he couldn't lift his arms above his head anymore - and he wasn't even 50 yet.

Not to mention the effects of concussions.

It may not be slavery, but it's more like child labor. Those kids don't have any idea of how football will change their bodies.

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Dude. Seriously? They are not aware of the damage playing Pro Football does? I've known this since high school and believe me, I've been out of HS for a long, long time. People still want to play because they are willing to take the risk for the money. Johnny Bench has hard time walking and many catchers hands are gnarled because of foul balls going off their hands.....but they still find people to play catcher, and they still find people that want to play Pro Football. People are ALWAYS willing to take long term consequences for a short term payoff. It's human nature. Knowing what can happen on a football field...how many people on this board right now would sign a NFL contract today if they could?