Northwestern football players seek to join union

Let me assure the regional director of the NLRB won't have the final say on this. The issue will likely ultimately be decided in the 7th Circuit, if not the Supreme Court.

 

Paul Richards said free agency would "be the end of baseball as we know it." He was right. It got better.

 

Perhaps but trying to shoe horn football players into the laws governing
employees from state to state seems like a daunting task. For one
lets take Workers comp laws. There will be a lot of college football players
going on permanent disability.

 

How many members of the NFLPA are on disability?

 

Then what? A vote, with 50% +1 required?

 

Not hyperbole, IMO.

 

Yep. Representation and decertification votes are majority. The Northwestern football players' petition vote was won by a big majority I've read.

 

They also said the Olympics would be doomed if professionals took part. It hasn't.

 

The juicy part of the ruling is that the players are employees not students. Indentured servitude?

 

I doubt there would be many but even if a good number went on partial disability after, say, a head, back or knee injury, so what? Football and basketball are risky occupations. Currently, top players are footing expensive bills for disability insurance that rarely pays out.

What other awful things will happen if players decide they no longer want to be exploited? It might actually help clean up recruiting.

Here's the decision:

http://www.espn.go.com/pdf/2014/0326/espn_uniondecision.PDF

 

If by any chance the courts rule in favor of college athletes, which this Supreme Court sure as hell won't, Congress would immediately pass a law stripping college athletes of any rights and any President, Republican or Democrat will sign it as fast as he can find a pen. The Venn diagram of Big Boosters and Big Campaign Donors is damn close to a single circle.

 

We've sold out and ruined sports in so many other ways, we might as well just push college athletics off the cliff and get it over with.