College football must die forever

Because college football should not exist. I want to believe that there is a way for the sport to work so that players are fairly compensated and I still try to explain Michigan three-plus games a year. In fact, just last week, a group of Pac-12 players released a series of demands for their return to the field, which included not only intensive safety measures, but also real reforms to address the continuing shame of amateurism affecting coaches and managers bank can have millions from a glorious NFL farm system. Their vision on the sport, complete with formal player unionization, SEEMED as if it could work.

It’s just that no one in management will allow that to happen. The Pac-12 coalition’s #WeAreUnited campaign has already been stepped up by a #WeWantToPlay campaign that is a drained list of requirements. That second campaign was co – opted directly by coaches and by the Axis of S – tbags – Trump, Jim Jordan, Nick Saban, ensfh. – as justification for placing players in the way of damage. You see? These guys want to play! I know why this means so much to the President. The lack of college football would serve as apparent evidence – for voters in the GOP’s favorite states – of its numerous, deliberate failures to contain the pandemic. He can not do that. He and other power brokers need us to return to a normal that had not existed in its previous incarnation.

That’s why college football can never come back. The sport has been so corrupt for so long that even the people who run it cannot even sort out the composition of the rat. The NCAA, which only affirms its authority over sports when there is money to be made or because some fullback from Iowa State committed a rule violation when he received $ 10 to mouse a neighbor’s lawn, has essentially told conferences and schools that the situation is not their problem. This is because the NCAA has no interest in actually FIXING any of these s— because that would cost them money.

Well, it’s my position – no wait, my wish – that the NCAA comes out without money. AND LO AND BEHAVIOR, here we now have a morbidly perfect chance to kill the NCAA dead forever. But the only way to do that effectively is to stop the games. That’s not the most appealing statement for players who really want to play right now, either because of their NFL prospects, or because they need Big Jim McBooster’s monthly envelope. Already some of them – like surefire no. 1 concept pick Trevor Lawrence – have bought in the idea that football, a deadly sport, somehow represents a relatively safe haven from the pandemic. Others, like his teammate Darien Rencher, have said this:

“The thing we’ve been running is playing,” Rencher said. “When we play, as we have seen in other sports, we can use our voices to stand up. But if we do not play, we have no charge to talk about things that can change.”

That’s just wrong. The second these players take the field, their forklift is gone. They are again all faceless, replaceable drones in helmets. The money will start flowing back and those who are on profit will put these players back right away. This is because colleges have never had to deal with players refusing to play a mass. They can not imagine it. Their budgets do not allow it even. The Pac-12 is already ready to take off billions in loans when the season is cut. That’s how dependent these schools are – not just the athletic departments, but whole schools – on free football talent. Player explosion is the backbone of the college’s industrial model, and those schools have any number of fans and bootlickers in the media to present that exploit as FAVOR granted to football players by colleagues. They have money and football history to use against players, many of whom come from inferior backgrounds. They force all of these players to a losing streak right when the stakes are highest, and they are not afraid to use every weapon in their arsenal to satisfy them. That they have never been.

There is no heartwarming ending to this. I would like to unite these players, but it is not necessary for them to do this legally. I would like them to be compensated for their work, but the Pac-12 has already challenged the Fair Pay To Play Act in court and successfully got a judge to rule that his players are not employees. I would like to watch football at the end of this month. For real, when the season opens, I get alarming jazz when I open my DirecTV channel guide and watch Utah start the season with a home game against Hawaii Tech at 10:30 a.m. on ESPNQ. But I know that game would prove more dangerous for its players than football already is. I also know that game would end 31-6. I believe Jim Harbaugh, coach of Michigan, when he says they have been hyper-vigilant regarding player tests and activity, but A) college coaches are serial bulls – tters, and B) that is one school out of hundreds. What about Eastern Kentucky, whose kicker stopped protesting last week because his coaches gave zero f – over safety? What about Washington State, what has left players already having the gall to tweet #WeAreUnited? What has college football ever done to earn my trust, if any?

You already know the answer. Nothing at all. These players give it their all, and what the f – have their bosses ever given back? We have reached a point in history where the glass is clear that American universities are where corruption is won. Many of them can not exist without their s – football teams, and those football teams can not exist without shocking their own players. That’s the system. You do not fix a system like this. You bury it. I hope every college football player dies out and never comes back.

Drew Magary is an own columnist for Medium’s magazine GEN, and a former author for both Deadspin and GQ. His third novel, Point B, came out in April.

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