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Open Letter To Ralph Nader: Politics And Sports Should Never Mix

Editor’s Note:  Welcome Muamer Razic back to LaxAllStars with some heavy hitting opinion on sports, culture, politics and more.  This is HEAVY, but somebody had to say it.  We’re just glad it was our boy, Mumaer!  Connor Wilson doesn’t have as much of a problem with this subject as Muamer does… compare and contrast!

Ralph Nader Athletic Scholarships
Ralph Nader

” Consumer advocate Ralph Nader is calling for the elimination of college athletic scholarships, saying the move is necessary to “de-professionalize” college athletes.”

According to Ralph Nader, scholarships should be replaced with need-based financial aid, which I personally think is a great idea. I mean, there are more and more college athletes becoming stuck up with the thought that they are already “stars”. IIn reality, they are still JUST college kids. They shouldn’t think more of themselves because they are playing a college sport, and they should be thankful!  It’s a once in a life-time oppurtunity to get to play college ball and it doesn’t need to be taken advantage of, which is what most athletes playing prime-time college sports do, such as Basketball and Football.

Ralph Nader said that colleges should either integrate athletics into the educational mission by eliminating college scholarships, or, “openly acknowledge the professionalism in big-time college sports, remove the tax-exempt status currently given to athletic departments, and make universities operate them as unrelated businesses.” And I couldn’t agree more!

Sheesh, they sure are making to big of a deal about college student-atheletes!  Ralph Nader wants to take away scholarships for them but Walter Byers, has called for paying college athletes. That’s just adding fuel to the flame!  If Universities want to talk about what’s possible/better for the University they should do it in private and when they are more along with an agreement THEN release the information to the public for critisicim.

NCAA Vice President Bob Williams released his statment:

“Mr. Nader’s proposal is off-base on so many fronts it is hard to know where to start.  The 145,000 student-athletes who receive athletics related financial aid each year are in fact students first — as evidenced by the fact that in almost every demographic they graduate at higher percentages than their counterparts in the general student body. Moreover, less than two percent of them will ever play professional sports. The assertion that student-athletes who receive athletics aid are professionals defies logic — they are students, just like any other student on campus who receives a merit-based scholarship.”

This is what I was talking about, there’s just going to be more and more drama because of what these guys have said.  My advice?  Keep it to yourselves until you have come to more of a “agreement” together.

Back to the kids being greedy…

Take Cam Newton for example, so many scandals surrounding him. In my opinion he’s so overrated and doesn’t deserve all the attention he’s getting.

I know I’m still I’m high school but next year when I’m finishing up choosing a college to attend I’m going to be thankful for all the scholarship offers I get. To me, it’s not about getting attention, it’s about getting the opportunity to continue playing the game I love! I’m not going to base my decision on how popular the school is or it’s program.  It’s all about their academics and the morals of the team. I just want to continue my education… and play lacrosse if I’m lucky enough.

So I guess it’s just a lacrosse player thing but all the other college students who are already famous for playing need to chill! Like I said; you’re lucky to get the opportunity to play in college and if you’re going to be ungrateful about it, just remember that there’s always going to be another athlete trainig to be the best. You need to remember why you started playing the game and why you put in all the hard work and dedication. There will always be someone who wants to be better than you, so don’t get cocky but show them that you’ll always strive to be the best at what you do.

Until you shoot 100% there will always be a need to practice and get better.
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