Professional Student Athletes

Part 1 of 2

Since discovering that live television could be a good thing, the major sports leagues and college athletic associations have found a way to take full advantage of the power a television camera holds. Baseball teams like the New York Yankees even go as far as to create their own television stations to broadcast games, and ESPN has grown from the home of chess and spelling bee competitions, to major television partners with the NBA, NFL, and Major League Baseball, not to mention all the exclusive contracts with the NCAA. Indeed, sports have become serious business and with the media expansion, there has been an explosion of television and concession dollars that have been sewn into the fabric of the games.

With more money, as Puff Daddy put it, comes more problems. The respective leagues have ballooned to astronomical heights, paying their athletes thousands of dollars per second to play a sport and live a life that the common Joe only wishes he could. There was one refuge however, college and prep sports was the untainted territories where the average sports fan could indulge in the simplistic nature and honest innocence of a game.

With the college game reaching a point where it is the number one Vegas draw for gambling degenerates and the passive internet bettor, the NCAA has taken giant steps towards the money signs that engulfs the pro game. College sports, with their multi-million dollar paydays for teams that make a bowl game or the NCAA tournament, has become as corporate as the pro game, down to the sponsorships and sweetheart shoe deals, not to mention the all booster money that flows to recruits and players like Patsy Parisi greasing the local building inspector. More money, more problems.

So we are left with the honesty and wholesomeness of the prep game. The last place big money and big influence can lay its greasy hands, the prep game is a place for us to go and root for our true hometown heroes. The kids that are going to shape our world and be a beacon of hope for humanity, surely the prep game is where we can still hold all the greatness of sports and the spirit of competition without putting a price tag on the integrity of the sport. Yeah Right!

In a true working example of “Voodoo Economics,” the prep game has been touched by the dirty hands of corruption, incompetence, and flat out greed. High schools with winning programs sport state of the art training and practice centers with teams of medical and training staff. Football stadiums are at times the same size as the entire school and more successful programs sport seating capacities that would put minor league baseball teams to shame. Even more disgusting, the “industry” has started to borrow from the corporate world.

As reported by Scott Wolf on insidesocal.com, one of the main reasons that Oaks Christian High School top recruit Jimmy Clausen chose Notre Dame was because of a run in Clausen’s personal quarterback coach, Steve Clarkson - proprietor of Air 7 Football Academy, had with USC head coach Pete Carroll during USC’s pro day a few weeks ago. The disagreement involving another Clarkson product, Matt Leinert, more likely then not influenced Clarkson’s “council” to Clausen. Here in lies the problem.

As a blue chip recruit, Clausen was guided to 3 CIF championship seasons under the guidance of Clarkson. Clausen is considered the best at his position for his exceptional mechanics and football smarts, which he no doubt perfected under Clarkson. I am sure that it’s all fine and good for Clausen; he will be a big time stud in college and perhaps in the league. But what about the other thousands of kids that don’t have the means to use a private quarterback coach? Is it really a level playing field, and can we really call the CIF honest in their attempt to promote honesty in their athletics, when there are clearly kids that are getting more reps, more gear, and more training? Or is it just another fact of life that the rich get richer, even on the most honest of stages. The class wars have spilled over to the modern battlefields, and it is as apparent as the mismatched socks some teams sport on the field, the playing field is slowly tilting against the inner city athlete that does not have all the resources to compete in today's CIF. Those that have, use it; and those who don’t get left behind. Indeed, more money, more problems.

Part 1 of 2
It's Not Cheating if No One Knows