At bottom, the so-called “U scandal” at the University of Miami is just another example of the inequity and hypocrisy built into U.S. society. It’s the same old song: Rich folks figure out a way to exploit and make money off our children. To make it seem legit, they pay a group of lackeys to enforce the unfair standards while using their bought-off press to make the criminal appear to be the victim and the victim into the criminal, and to make it all seem somehow fair.
Some sports reporters and columnists have called for the University of Miami to receive the death penalty as a result of the accusations of a convicted ponzi schemer and school booster. But how can that be when all the facts are not in? Isn’t that “the American Way”?
Even outside of official jurisprudence, there is usually the accepted thinking that people are innocent until proven guilty. Hmmm…why the exception in this case of some college athletes who possibly violated the rules?
We know the answer: There is always a double standard when it comes to the Black and poor of this country.
A yellow journalist for the Sporting News called for the death penalty using the example of the destruction of the South Vietnamese village of Ben Tre during the Vietnam War. Ben Tre at the time was burned to the ground by the U.S. military, ostensibly to save it.
Even the army has long since admitted that it was wrong to have destroyed that village. In fact, it was downright immoral, even during a war, to do something so cruel. But this self-righteous reporter evokes a criminal undertaking to denounce youthful indiscretions.
Violating NCAA rules is still not a crime.
Yet another writer, a beat writer for the Miami Herald, Linda Robertson, called the university unscrupulous. I don’t think she understands the word, since she doesn’t see the obvious irony in calling someone unscrupulous while not herself having the scruples or being principled enough to wait for all the evidence before playing judge and jury.
Speaking of lacking scruples, ESPN sports commentator Kirk Herbstreit, who has never hid his dislike for Miami, waded in and declared that Miami should receive the death penalty. Not only is this poor journalism, but it also demonstrates poor sportsmanship and a clear lack of principles on his part. The honorable thing to do would have been to recuse himself because everyone knows he has an anti-Miami bias.
Incredibly, the same biased hack, the aptly named Alexander Wolfe — who called for the death penalty for the U on the front page of Sports Illustrated 16 years ago — is back at it. And yet again, all he did was reveal his bias.
What’s really behind all the unscrupulous, unethical and thug-like behavior of the sportswriters is their dislike of the in-your-face style that the Miami program in its heyday brought to the field. They brought the hood with them, warts and all, unlike the quiescent Negroes in the other programs. And for that they have been made to pay.
Speaking of payment, it seems that since college athletics has gotten so rotten, the honorable thing to do would be to stop making money off something you don’t like or respect. Now that would be the principled and scrupulous thing to do!
There is said to be honor among thieves, but not among this class-prejudiced, amoral, unprincipled mob. Put bluntly, this whole thing smells.
When one looks at the source of all the commotion, amateur athletics, it becomes clear that something is deeply wrong here. Young people who are considered amateurs make all kinds of money for everyone in college athletics.
Coaches and their assistants make small fortunes. Everybody gets paid from the trainers to the secretaries, and the athletic departments and their staffs make a good living. And all of it is provided by the labor of so-called amateur athletics.
Incredibly, these athletes are amateurs because a group of well-off White guys says so. That’s right — the NCAA made these kids amateurs by simply saying so in their rules. They conveniently left out any rules governing their salaries.
The NCAA president makes a few million dollars a year, and his 14 major assistants make around $400,000 per year. Investigators and other staff are also well compensated.
Yet Ohio State’s Tyrelle Pryor and some of his teammates are made out to be criminals because they received free tattoos and sold signed souvenirs. Other programs have been investigated recently and cited for rules violations.
But there is something wrong with this at bottom. The argument about getting a free education doesn’t hold up very well any more, since a college degree no longer guarantees one a job in our society. The fact is that the major programs are making serious money, and the kids toting all the water are not being fairly compensated.
The University of Miami’s alleged football scandal reveals more about the plantation than about major college athletics. It even reveals the pettiness and lack of ethics of sportswriters who have rushed to judgment in their unrivaled zeal to kick the Hurricanes when they appear to be down.
