Do Athletes Not Own Themselves?

In Athens, there is a legendary tree that owns itself. The deed for the land belongs to the tree. It can never be moved. But there is another legend in Athens that apparently lost his deed on the way. Of course, I'm speaking of Todd Gurley. Georgia's now famous junior runningback who, until last Thursday, was a front runner for the Heisman trophy.

Todd Gurley

Gurley is just one in a string of famous college football players who have used their fame for personal gain. Eric Dickerson got in hot water because Texas A&M boosters his grandma bought him a car (a 79 Trans-AM, a nice car even today). Terrelle Pryor and his friends got Jim Tressell fired at Ohio State because they traded memorabilia for tattoos.

And now, Jameis Winston is being investigated for the exact same thing. Selling autographs.

The issue that a good friend of mine, Mike Foster, brought up is that the O'Bannon case was recently settled for a massive sum. The case was essentially that these schools abuse the likeness of famous athletes for monetary gain but there is no compensation for those individuals. It's the reason Texas A&M sells #2 jerseys with no name on them. There's plausible deniability there but really, we all know who that jersey represents. Johnny Football. He doesn't get a single cent for those sales.

I want to place pressure here on the NCAA and president Mark Emmert. Fix this issue immediately. We should give at least some leeway to these athletes to make money. It's the legalization argument that we see with many other things. Because there is a no tolerance policy, it turns criminal in nature and these athletes set themselves up with the wrong types. (I'm looking at you Miami)

Just make the athletes able to get money from the school. It won't break the system. It will allow for regulation instead of punishments.