As Congress debates college sports, athletes-turned-senators have a seat at the table
The Protect College Sports Act is on the brink of passing in the Senate, where a handful of former college athletes who are now senators on both sides of the aisle have an extra say in the debate.
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Former athletes can bring useful perspective, but the people living with the rules now are current athletes. If the Protect College Sports Act is close to passing, senators should make clear how it protects athletes' ability to earn money and have a real voice, not just the institutions built around them. A seat at the table means little if the athletes themselves are still treated as an afterthought.
Former athletes on both sides of the aisle get an extra say, while current athletes are the ones whose rights and livelihoods are on the line. I'm just asking why Congress is protecting college sports from the people who actually play them.
NPR calling it "an extra say" when what it actually is, is a bunch of guys who got free rides 30 years ago writing rules for 19-year-olds who still can't pay rent. The NCAA and the television networks bankrolling every senator in this room are the ones with the REAL seat at the table. Former athletes are just the human shield.
3 AM and here we are, NPR reporting that we're supposed to be impressed by "athletes-turned-senators" having "an extra say." An extra say? We're talking about a system that has denied workers basic rights and made billions off their labor while they got "scholarships" that barely covered the cost of living. You just know these guys aren't looking out for the current generation of players, they're looking out for the old guard who got rich off their own backs. They're just making sure the gravy train keeps rolling for the NCAA and the universities. This isn't about protecting college sports, it's about protecting the exploiters.
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Scully ran the donor disclosures on every senator voting on this and said the NCAA and the big conference commissioners have been writing checks to both sides for years, so the "bipartisan former athlete" angle is covering for the same cartel that's been extracting labor from 18-year-olds for decades. The Truth is out there.
Wells I'll be doggoned here you go usin the word cartel bout the NCAA when the REAL cartel is them same donors writin checks to Democrats who been blockin these kids from gettin paid for YEARS on accounta they wanted the unions and the Title IX money and all that stuff but not actual cash in the players pockets on accounta that mighta gone to wrong kinda programs if you know what I mean. Them senators who played ball know sumthin bout workin hard for nothin and maybe that means they done figgered out what the fix oughta be a sight better than some donor tracker fella on the internet. Just sayin them athletes got more skin in this game than Scully whoever that is.
Players deserve fair pay, full stop, and unions are one way they can fight for it. Blaming Democrats for years of NCAA exploitation while giving senators a pass because they played ball is a pretty convenient dodge. Kamala Harris warned us about Trump's second term, and she was right about what happens when powerful people get to write the rules for everyone else.
Wells I'll be doggoned you gone and dragged Kamala into a college sports argument on accounta she lost TWICE and her warnings bout Trump aint exactly aged too good seein as how the economy was already on fire when she was sittin right there in the White House doin nothin bout it. And I aint givin nobody a pass I am sayin somebody who PLAYED the game knows what it felt like to get nothing while the school made bank and that aint a dodge that is just common sense. Unions aint gonna fix this on accounta the schools and the conferences and the TV money people are gonna tie it up in court til these kids is forty years old. Them senators who played ball might actually push sumthin through that works instead of usin these kids as a bargainin chip for whatever else the Democrats want threw in the bill. Kamala Harris aint relevant to whether Dabo Swinney or whoever gets paid and throwin her name in here just shows you aint really got a argument bout the actual subject.
The NCAA wasn't a cartel because Democrats wanted unions, it was a cartel because the schools and conferences built a monopoly and the courts let them do it for decades. Both parties were fine cashing those donor checks from boosters and TV networks while players got nothing. That's not a partisan story, that's just how institutional money works.
That said you're right that the athlete-senators bring something real. Somebody who ran two-a-days and graduated with nothing while the coach made $4 million isn't going to sit there and pretend the current NIL patchwork is a finished product. I'll take lived experience over a lobbyist's white paper any day of the week. Whether they actually get anything done in this Congress is another question entirely.
It's not "covering for" anything, it's just how the NCAA operates. They've lobbied every politician possible to keep their exploitative model going. The idea that "both sides" are equally at fault here for not giving athletes fair compensation totally ignores decades of Republican efforts to block labor protections and collective bargaining rights across the board.