What it Was was Football

Football Playoffs and Bowl Games Begin

College and Professional Football: Ah the time of the year when footballs fly through the air and big ugly guys smack other big ugly guys around and get paid for it. College players don’t get paid per se, but they do get a “free college education,” or at least, thanks to strict NCAA rules they get to major in eligibility for four years. We’ll talk more about that later, but first, let me air a few of my pet peeves. They have to do with the English language. Announcers at all levels of athletic competition seem to have an affinity for murdering the English language. These are probably the same guys who mock immigrants for not learning English quickly enough or who don’t speak with grammatical perfection. Well, let’s take a look at a few of a few of the trite phrases and language butchers.

Whoa, Nelly: One of the favorite terms by Keith Jackson that has become his hallmark is fine with me. But the one that is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me is “True freshman.” As in, “The quarterback is a true freshman.” Are the other freshmen liars, or perhaps seniors masquerading as freshmen? No, the NCAA blesses college athletes five calendar years to complete four years of eligibility. If a first year academic freshman does not participate in sports, then the following year that player might be a sophomore academically, but is playing his first (or freshman) year of eligibility.” Thus an academic sophomore who participates in his first year of athletic eligibility is a “Redshirt freshman.” I guess the announcers believe that no freshman should be on the field without two descriptive adjectives. But fellas, the first year participant who is also in his first year of academic statue is a freshman; not a “True freshman.” Whew, I feel better.

Not to confuse all the Ohio State’s with one another: The next expression that rankles me goes something like, “The BYUs, Penn States, and Ohio States….” Uh, fellas, there is only one BYU, one Ohio State, one Penn State, etc. so they can’t be plural. The exception is Miami, which is found both in Ohio and Florida. Next, let’s talk about tense. After a player is tackled trying to run up the middle of the field, the announcer will often say, “If he runs to the outside, he scores.” Come on guys. Is it so difficult to say, “Had he run to the outside he would have scored?” Oh, don’t forget, coming up is a third down situation. I once counted “situation” used 27 times. How about “Third down coming up?” And if your team is doing poorly because, “they have yet to get untracked,” does that mean your team is tracked? How exactly does a team become tracked in order for it to become untracked?

Switching sports metaphors: It seems that anything that happens for the third time regardless of the sport becomes a trifecta. If a baseball team wins the last several games of the searon, that team will have “run the table.” A player who might be the best in a particular area is “arguably the best.” But I never hear an argument. Or, “he’s as (fill in the blank) as anybody in the country.” Often a team needs to amp up its energy, or it may need to hunker down. Can a team amp down or hunker up? If not, the direction is superfluous.

Individual achievement: A player of substantial size, especially in basketball, is often praised by announcers because he can “get up and down the court for a man his size.” But the king of redundancies and mispronunciations has to be John Madden. After each play Madden feels obligated to provide analysis of what has occurred no matter how redundant or irrelevant. He would be an ideal color man for radio or for visually impaired folks watching television, but PLEASE John, ease up on the paralysis of your analysis. My final comment has to do with words that are either misused or made up. How often does one hear of a player’s “athleticism?” We will close with a recent term that was spewed from the lips of an announcer when a football player leapt over opponents. In the words of the announcer he became “verticalized.

But those announcers went to college: Graduation rates among college athletes have been a hot topic for decades. Allen Sack, a professor in the College of Business at the University of New Haven, played football on Notre Dame’s 1966 national championship football team. He has written several articles critical of NCAA reporting of graduation rates for athletes. In a recent article Stack states, “For instance, the University of Florida, a top-ranked team in the Bowl Championship Series ratings, graduates 81 percent of its student body, but only 36 percent of its football players. Other top ranked BCS teams whose graduation rates fall 30 or more percentage points below those other students include Texas, USC, Georgia, BYU, Georgia Tech, California, and Michigan State. The average FGR for the top 25 BCS teams as of Nov. 3 was 52 percent, 18 percent below that of student bodies.

There are graduation rates and there are graduation rates: The NCAA uses a different method to calculate athlete graduation so schools appear to have a higher graduation rate. Some, like Sack say is tantamount to cooking the books. But even when giving the NCAA the benefit of the doubt, a closer look reveals what is referred to as “clustering.” According to a recent USA Today article, “the NCAA's toughening of academic requirements for athletes has helped create an environment in which they are more likely to graduate than other students — but also more likely to be clustered in programs without the academic demands most students face. Some athletes say they have pursued — or have been steered to — degree programs that helped keep them eligible for sports but didn't prepare them for post-sports careers.”

All so-called Division 1A school were studied and the results were that “83% of the schools (118 of 142) had at least one team in which at least 25% of the juniors and seniors majored in the same thing. For example, seven of the 19 players on Stanford's baseball team majored in sociology.

•34% of the teams (222 of 654) had at least one such cluster of student-athletes.

•More than half of the clusters are what some analysts refer to as "extreme," in which at least 40% of athletes on a team are in the same major (125 of 235). All seven of the juniors and seniors on Texas-El Paso's men's basketball team majored in multidisciplinary studies, for example.” And a Multidisciplinary Studies major prepares the young college graduate to do what? Oh yes, to apply at all those multidisciplinary firms that snap them up.

Graduation rates increase and the NCAA can boast that they keep the student in student athlete. Coaches who recruit can tell the parent of every athlete what they want to hear – that their son or daughter will leave their institution with a quality education. Even the athlete believes it. But the joke’s on him, or her.

A little blogging music Maestro… A little Beach Boys singing, “Be True to Your School.”

Dr. Forgot

Bowling for Dollars

A Free Education

Sitting in the living room of a star high school athlete the college coach makes promises to the parents. Their son will get an education, he will be looked after, he will be kept safe, the coaching staff will treat him as well as he is treated at home, plus he will eat at the training table so the parent's food bill will drop significantly. The parents laugh then express their concern that their son has never been the best student. Not to worry, says the coach, we have academic advisors who will help him select classes and tutors who will help him academically. He will become a student and an athlete. He'll earn a college degree - Free.

It is a spiel that is presented thousands of times in hundreds of homes across America each year as coaches recruit what they hope will be the best athletes in the country. Some coaches fly in private jets, others criss-cross the country in search of the elusive difference maker. Sounds expensive, right? You betcha. Last year THE Ohio State University was THE leader in the money game. THE athletic department took in nearly $ 60 million. Of that amount it spent more than half ($ 32.5 million) on its football program. While THE Ohio State University might be the national champion in income and spending, they did not win football's BCS Championship this year. That honor went to poor stepchild Louisiana State University who brought in a paltry $ 48 million and spent a measly $ 17 million on its program.

So where does all this money go? Can't pay for a tee shirt for an athlete. That is an NCAA violation. Ditto if a booster wants to take an athlete to dinner or buy him a warm jacket in the winter or make any other purchase that is not available to the non-athlete student. So what is in it for the athlete? A chance to play professionally and earn millions each year? That is the carrot, but the likelihood of a high school athlete becoming a brain surgeon is better than that of a high school athlete becoming a professional football player and earning multi-millions per year.

Ok, but at least the college athlete gets a degree, right? After all, the sportscasters in always refer to the athlete who "graduated from the University of So-and So." Wrong again. At least a misnomer. If the athlete is white and plays football or basketball he has a 50-50 chance of earning a degree. If he is not white those chances drop significantly. Remember, young men who are willing to trade their bodies for an opportunity to earn the big bucks for the most part start out as poor, inner-city, undereducated high school students, and often end up as poor, inner-city, undereducated college dropouts.

College student-athletics as it is presented by ESPN, ABC, NBC, Fox and other major media outlets and their advertisers is a fraud. Coaches make millions, TV and radio networks make hundreds of millions, bowl organizers and licensed product makers make millions, communities and colleges make millions and the watchdog NCAA makes millions. The athletes make.... nothing. Amateur athletics? A big lie.

I can think of few other examples when so few have toiled to enrich so many. And the few who toiled, risking permanent injury, are so poorly compensated. How can this happen? It was once summed up to me by a coach in simple words that even I was able to understand: Sports has its own section in the newspaper. A political debate or math competition does not draw 102,000 screaming fans. Those screaming fans, who pay the freight, don't care if the gladiator for whom they are cheering attends class, gets a degree, or is paid part of the spoils. Go State.

A little blogging music Maestro.... "Hail to the Victors."

Dr. Forgot

You Can Take the Player Out of the City...

But Can You Take the City Out of the Player?

The sentencing of Michael Vick in the animal abuse case has given rise to many many hours of discussion by sports pundits, most of whom come from middle class white backgrounds. That does not mean that the pundits do not have a perspective on the issue, after all, one can write about a hanging without first having experienced it. They just don't have the same perspective as an inner city kid.Hollywood and television have had a history of showing things as they think the public will pay to watch them rather than how they really are. This is certainly evident in sports.

In most "Friday Night Lights" type shows, the football hero is a rich white boy. Sometimes he is a white boy from the wrong side of the tracks - father is a drunk, mother is an abuse victim, etc. But the fact is that most gladiators are poor, and in the case of basketball and especially football, minority. College coaches comb the inner cities for tough young men who can run fast and are willing to sacrifice their bodies in exchange for a college education (what the coaches will tell you) or "a chance to play on Sunday," (what the players will tell you).

When you think about it, football is a sport in which one must sacrifice his body. What else does a poor, inner-city kid have of more value than his or her body. The poor youngster is more willing to trade that body for a chance to move up the social and financial ladder than is the middle or upper class kid regardless of race, creed, or national origin.

During my stint working with college athletes I saw many phenomena, one of which is described above - the poor, undereducated, usually minority lad with a strong body is given an opportunity to raise himself socially, academically, and financially. And although most inner city schools do not pride themselves on generating Rhodes scholars, students from such schools may be behind because of having gone through a school that is likely an academic wasteland, but nearly every one is intellectually capable of earning a college degree. So why don't more do so?

The earlier a child in our society is identified with potential star athletic ability, the sooner he is fawned over, given perks and breaks not available to his peers, and the more time is spent developing his athletic abilities and not requiring him to develop his academic abilities. So the economically deprived inner city kid often enters college on scholarship but without comparable academic grooming that has gone into grooming of his athletic abilities. He is much more likely to drop out than his non-recruited peer even with the help academic support services.

A second issue that is often difficult to overcome is his loyalty to his culture - meaning his extended family and peers who were with him during the years of his teen development and often do not value a college degree. Such bonds that usually begin in childhood or junior high school are often lifelong bonds of love and loyalty. To the peers the scholarship football player becomes an up and coming star, and if he is fortunate enough to make it to the professional ranks, his old high school buddies become his "posse" or his "home boys," fawning over him and often becoming his "advisers." For they gain wealth and status by associating with their childhood buddy.

The problem is that even though the professional athlete has been schooled in the proprieties of society, his posse has a different frame of reference - inner city survival abilities and values often coupled with newfound wealth and with bonds just as strong, and in some cases stronger, than the athlete's fear of legal consequences. It is a recipe for the failure of the wealthy young athlete to grow and become a model in society.

Some professional athletes are strong enough to divorce themselves from the issues that place a drain on them and place them in harms way. Others are able to turn aside and ignore the problem, often supporting family, friends, and hangers on financially but keeping their distance. And others succumb to the pressures and make a mess of their lives.

One other issue with the young, unsophisticated males who come into huge sums of money through their athletic prowess is a syndrome similar to that of lottery winners. They are preyed upon by scammers, beggars, and many other parasites who wish to separate a portion of the wealth from the host. But in the case of high visibility athletes, the wealth makes them more obvious targets for not only parasites but thieves who would do them harm for money. Such was the case in the recent fatal shooting of a football player in Florida.

Some athletes have taken to sequestering themselves inside guarded homes. They have come full circle - from being behind walls in fear of their safety as a youngster, and protecting themselves with guns and vicious dogs due to extreme poverty, to hiding behind gates and protecting themselves with guns and vicious dogs and fences due to extreme opulence that comes with financial success. It is a sad commentary.

Dr. Forgot

College Sport - Good, Bad, and Ugly

What a Season!

Today we are a little off topic. College football is one of my favorite pastimes. I have worked closely with athletic programs at major universities and must tell you the excitement generated on a campus that has a winning program is like no other. The highs are higher and the lows lower in sport than in life. If sport is art and art does indeed imitate life, sport can teach us plenty about fairness, playing by the rules, consequences, and other life experiences, but there is no correlation between life experiences and those of a winning sport team, especially in a community that had not had one previously.

This analysis comes from a person whose own most intense college athletic experience consisted of shifting into second gear - and I'd often grind the gears when doing that. Ok, truth be told, while in college I did have three wrestling matches in the back seat of a Packard, but I don't tout those because I was pinned two out of the three times. Despite such a dearth of college athletic experiences, or maybe because of it, I found myself in the position of providing academic support services for student athletes at a major Division-I athletic program. I soon discovered a few basic truths: despite the stereotype, the vast majority of college athletes do indeed have the intelligence to complete a college degree. Most have a much stronger sense of self discipline than does the average student. Those truths are balanced by the fact that too often their coaches do not have the academic well being of the student athlete foremost in their mind.

I once approached a coach who had made much of the fact that his athletes were provided academic support services and he was most supportive of required study halls, academic progress reports, class schedules that were built around an actual major other than eligibility, and all things academic. When his star running back missed several study halls I approached the coach and suggested it would make a strong statement to both the team and the community at large if the student athlete were suspended for one game for missing required study sessions. The coach invited me into his office, closed the door, and gave me a strong dose of reality.

"Doc," he said, "That running back will probably be the determining factor whether we win Saturday's game." I was with him so far and told him that is exactly why a suspension would show the importance placed on academics in this university's athletic program. He held his hand up to stop me and continued, "If we have a zero graduation rate and my record on the field is 11-0 and we go to a bowl game, I will not only get to keep my job, I will get a bonus and probably a raise as well as bonuses for my staff and probably a great recruiting class for next year. However, if our graduation rate is 100% and our record on the field is 0-11, I will get fired and so will my staff."

I left his office with that feeling in the pit of my stomach that feels like I'd just had a dose of reality shoved down my throat and I didn't like it. The coach was willing to support my efforts for academic excellence but only to a point. So I decided to conduct an informal survey to see if that view was either held or supported by faculty, community members and members of the booster club whose money, along with the revenue earned by playoffs, bowl games, TV appearances, ticket sales, etc. provided for more than 80% of the budget of the athletic program.

First on my list were faculty members. I spoke to a cross section from all academic disciplines without regard to whether or not athletes would enroll for their classes. The results surprised me. Probably five percent of the faculty members spoke desparagingly about athletes. One, a philosophy professor, even told me that he did not feel athletes belong on a college campus and on the first day of class he always asks if there are any athletes. For those foolish enough to admit their status he tells them to drop his course. When I asked those who could be categorized as anti-athlete why they felt this way, especially if athletes rarely register for their classes, I heard every stereotype of a student athlete that one could imagine - they don't come to class, they're disruptive, they cheat, they require extra time when schedules require makeup work, etc.

Another five percent or so of the faculty were strong supporters of athletes and athletics. I was told that they welcome athletes in their class and do everything possible to accommodate them even if it means bending rules. One even asked it I could get tickets for his family and relatives who planned to visit over a particular weekend. I declined. After removing the 10% (5% anti and 5% overly "helpful") I found that the other 90% of the faculty couldn't care less what their students did outside their class. They were there to teach and offer support as needed.

The next group I informally surveyed were community members. I discovered roughly the same breakdown as in the faculty. Five percent were pro athlete, five percent were anti and 90% couldn't care less. But among the boosters, as one might expect, most believed the athletes should receive extra benefits. A surprising number couldn't care less whether the student athlete graduated, attended class or not. They just wanted to be entertained.

I took the results of my informal survey to the Director of Athletics at the university, a 30-year veteran of intercollegiate athletics who had been an athlete, coach, professor, and administrator, and told him what I had discovered and asked if the results surprised him. He said he felt what I'd found was fairly representative of the groups I'd surveyed and then smacked me with my next dose of reality. He said, "Do you think the community in general cares about what goes on in a university outside the athletic department?" As I looked up dumbfounded he continued, "Look no further than the local newspaper. Sports has its own section. Academics is relegated to perhaps a story or two when a bond issue is floated or teachers ask for a raise, or tuition costs rise. Otherwise, most Americans turn to the sports page first."

I left the office a sadder but wiser person. It is true, most people don't care about athletics unless their team is in contention for a trophy. So who is to protect the athletes from being exploited? Is it the college presidents who see winning teams as an opportunity to generate more fund raising for the university's general fund ? Is it the regulatory agency, the NCAA who earn millions, perhaps billions in TV revenue and other revenue generating sources built on the backs of 18-22 year old young people? Is it the coaches associations whose athletes are from poor and minority backgrounds in far greater percentages than the mostly white male coaching and administrative staffs?

No, my readers, college athletics is less about sport than business. Even athletes who show enough promise to have a professional career are forbidden to leave college prior to the time their graduating class has graduated. The college athlete is an indentured servant. What's that you say? In return for sacrificing his body for four years he gets a free education and academic support services? That is only partly true - assuming the athlete does not have a career-ending injury, does not turn out to be a "recruiting mistake" whose athletic ability did not develop, or who did not drop out for other reasons. Besides, the college degree might be worth $ 20,000 per year but the revenue paid to the university for one of the larger bowl games can exceed $ 10,000,000. College sports are big business. A little traveling music, maestro.... how about "Pennies From Heaven."

Dr. Forgot