Posted on 04/07/2014 1:48:32 PM PDT by RightGeek
Shabazz Napier, point guard for The University of Connecticut's men's basketball team, recently told reporters he understands why athletes at Northwestern need a union, as he sometimes has to go to bed "starving" because he cannot afford food.
"We as student athletes get utilized for what we do so well. We are definitely best to get a scholarship to our universities, but at the end of the day, that doesn't cover everything. We do have hungry nights that we don't have enough money to get food and sometimes money is needed," the senior told reporters. "I think, you know, Northwestern has an idea, and we'll see where it goes."
(Excerpt) Read more at ctmirror.org ...
Having seen this problem as a player on a basketball scholarship a parent of a son on a basketball scholarship and working as an Academic Mentor to an Athletic Department I can see Napier’s point. I also think this situation will continue to evolve to a point where some colleges will drop athletics and some will hire athletes to play in a league for the school. Years back there was something called the Industrial League where pros played for companies regardless of their age or college achievement. It is sad but this is where college sports are headed.
I am neither, and I’m rooting for Kentucky :)
They’re a ‘little different’ this year.
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/david-and-goliath-and-kentucky/
Doesn’t pass the smell test. I went to a regional state university, lived with one athlete and did a career-based internship with another. Neither one starved. At all.
Watch the game tonight, and write down all of the names of the players who are anorexic.
I am guessing that if going to bed hungry was a legitimate issue, the coach could arrange an after practice meal.
In exchange for participating in their schools’ athletic program, they get to attend their school of higher education gratis. Street value of anywhere between 20,000 - 40,000 / year.
Sounds like a good deal to me.
Here’s an idea, why don’t we start a canned food drive for Shabazz.
No they’re not...it just took a whole season for them to gel.
Cal and Company will get theirs’ eventually.
They probably get KFC delivered to their dorms every night. :)
Lawry’s Prime Rib??? I have been there. That is some pretty fine grub.
there were NO starving atheletes at my university, ever. the guy is lying. or a severe ass when it comes to managing his money. and apparently not smart enough to schmooze food and drink from athletic admirers if he is broke.
They’re probably paying the NCAA so the athletes are considered part of the get for Lawry’s. Because you can’t compensate the athlete that way (just look at Ohio State). Which just shows the idiocy of the NCAA’s system, if they make the deal the kids get to eat free, if the kids make the deal wins get vacated and schools get banned from bowl consideration.
I wouldn’t say it happens all the time. But he is not even close to the first player I’ve heard talk about going hungry. When you’re a full time student AND a full time athlete AND not allowed to get freebies from the community running out of food is an easy thing to do.
nobody is saying their anorexic, that’s just you erecting a strawman. come back when you can argue with logic.
They get meal money on the road. Cafeterias are open 7 days a week on campus when in session.
Meal money can run out. 7 days a week doesn’t mean 24 hours a day. This isn’t a new story, it happens. And nobody can offer a good reason why they couldn’t get the EXACT SAME stipend academic scholarships get, except that the NCAA won’t allow it.
The NCAA sucks.
I was a photographer for 11 d2 and d3 national championships. I was licensed to sell photos to the athletes and their families (really—who else is going to want d3 field hockey pictures? I could only sell them for two weeks and I had to give the NCAA 50% of the revenue. So I had to increase my price to these kids and their families. This was done under the premise that I would screw the families and gouge the prices to them.
It is like working for the mafia. I have no respect for them at all. I hope this union thing puts them out of business.
Kim Jong, is that U?
The only way Shabazz goes hungry at night is after smoking a couple of joints is if the cafeteria is closed and the vending machine on his dorm floor is on the fritz.
And another one has to go with fallacy, this time insulting the kid. Pretty pathetic way to admit the logic doesn’t back you.
You would be incorrect.
Their food plan is a standard food plan that would be the same as my kids. And if practice goes beyond the time the cafeteria is serving—which happens almost every day—you are on your own.
Based on the money UConn brings in from both basketball programs—these kids get screwed.
$1 will get you 5 oodles of noodles.
that’s what we ate at nights.
maybe his complaint is due to the moochelle food rationing program not ‘allowing’ him enough caloric intake as an athlete
The only ones who NEED a union are those who cannot reasonably relocate AND are when collective action is the only reasonable recourse to correct a wrong by some entity responsible for your well being.
Student athletes do not meet any of that. Mr. Napier could easily go pro, but he promised his mother that he'd complete college first. If Mr. Napier simply said, "recruit me", he'd have a signing bonus in his hands in an hour and all the food he would want.
Plenty of people in unions go hungry. Unionization didn't help them.
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