Would somebody please have the guts to stand up the NCAA. Anybody? A coach, an athletic director, anyone with some stones. Heisman hopeful, Todd Gurley of Georgia, has been suspended indefinitely by the almighty and simultaneously pathetic NCAA. Gurley did not rape or kill anyone. Guy didn’t even get caught with drugs. His crime was not even a crime, just a violation of ridiculous NCAA policy. He had the nerve to think he could sell the rights to his own autograph. While his name is Todd Gurley and his signature is his own property obviously, he can not charge money for it because he is a so called amateur!
Whether he actually did commit this violation is irrelevant. The fact that these insane NCAA rules are still in place is the issue. Todd Gurley is the best player on the Georgia Bulldogs football team and likely in the entire nation. He now has to sit out while old men in suits hash this matter out. He could be done for the season for simply making a few dollars on the side. By the way, he was sighing his own jerseys allegedly. These jerseys are not handouts that the University Of Georgia gives away freely to fans of course. They charge handsomely for the right to wear #3 which does not sport “GURLEY” on the back but it is obvious who the jersey represents. So it is OK for the school to take in thousands of dollars in Todd Gurley jersey sales, but a travesty of justice for the actual player to make $20 for autographing the UGA gear. I can’t imagine the thick-headed person who can’t see the hypocrisy in that. It is as plain as day!
I wish Georgia’s coach would stick up for his player and state publicly that the NCAA is a joke. But that won’t happen. Mark Richt is a nice guy and a decent coach, but he is not going to make those kind of waves. The president of the university is certainly not going to make such a stand. There will a few on the big TV networks that will talk about the injustice being done to Gurley, but many will go with the tired line of, “rules are rules”. Yes, rules are rules and the NCAA has about 8,543 too many of them. I really don’t know who is willing to stand up in a meaningful way for these college players who keep getting in trouble for NCAA issues. I am not talking about real crimes like Jameis Winston was accused of, but NCAA issues that harm NO ONE AT ALL.
Maybe the NFL Players Union could make some sort of stand and unite the college football players across America. These pro players know what it is like to walk around campus with no money in their pockets and not have the right to work, per NCAA rules. It would only take a few high profile players or former players to get the ball rolling. The Northwestern football team had the right idea by trying to unionize. But I want to see something done right now. Immediately. If the NFL Union could rally enough big time college players to sit out next week that would make headlines like you can not imagine. Or maybe have the top 50 players in the nation do a public autograph session for $20 a pop to really shove it in the faces of the NCAA brass and college leaders too cowardly to make a stand of their own. All this is far fetched since no one wants to rock the boat. But the boat is in danger of sinking. The NCAA is ruining the game of college football by taking out the best players year after year.
If I were Todd Gurley, I would get with an agent right now and make some money for the rest of the season. I would sign as many jerseys as I could and start selling them online. Gurley would make about $100K in a few days. He should realize that he was playing football for a corrupt system that is broken and he is too good to be involved further. The NFL is certainly not a perfect solution, but at least he won’t be playing for free when he gets there next year. In the meantime, I will keep hoping for someone to stand up to the NCAA. I know there are a few NFL players like Arian Foster who have publicly stated how bad the NCAA is, so maybe the NFLPA as a whole could be the group to stand up to the bully that is wrecking college football.