I realize it’s not a popular opinion, but let’s at least be honest about football players and their “free education”. Are there half a dozen players on the team who will play meaningful time in the NFL and make significant money doing so? Yes, and they are probably not receiving their market value playing in college (unless they are SEC) AND are physically ready for that profession. There are more with future potential but they still need physical training, positional coaching, nutrition, and mental maturity to get to that level and be successful. Are there >75 players who will never reach the NFL who are being “paid” tuition, books, room, meals, tutors, very high level medical treatment, along with an allowance? Meals alone, how do the football players meals compare to what you ate in college? There is no Golden Corral in the North end zone.
It’s true those don’t amount to an actual tax free wage that you can save or spend at your own discretion, but they are the trade off for representing the university as a student athlete. For the great majority of players football represents an opportunity to get a degree for playing a game a lot of them actually want to play. How many HS senior football players are relieved when the reality sets in that they will never play organized football again just as they are starting to hit their prime physical condition in life? A few? How many would jump at the chance to keep playing, all the benefits aside? Probably a lot of them.
Surely there are players playing only as a means to an end, like a chance to escape poverty. Well, the NFL might be a golden ticket, but a college degree in a surer bet. How many players get a more prestigious degree and better connections than they would have otherwise from academics alone? More than a few.
Most kids play football because they grew up loving the sport. I mentioned high level medical care and I absolutely acknowledge that a lot of that care and treatment is a result of injuries from playing football. Though how many players have prior injuries that are remedied after they enroll? Or conditions not football related who end up with top specialists that would not have been available otherwise? We have quite a few just on our team alone.
I don’t disagree with most of what you post, it’s the hyperbole that gets stale. This “great melting pot” of a country has some long overdue change that’s needed, the whole concept of race needs to be removed from the equation. We are all people, good, bad, ugly, beautiful, whatever... we need to move on from the social construct of race and focus on our species and our relationship with the planet and beyond. But the near-term demands of social equity and wether or not athletes get paid are two very different subjects. Yeah, most college football players think they are going to the NFL, so yeah they are underpaid at this point in their career. But reality speaks otherwise and most of them are being compensated quite well for a teenager playing a sport.