Time for today's take. On this day, i have the NCAA, once again, in my cross hairs. The big bads at the 2a's have gone after a kicker this go round. Specifically UCF kicker Donald De La Haye, who has been ruled ineligible because he refused to give up the revenue he's been making off of Youtube videos.
To be fair the college overlords, they almost did the right thing here. They gave De La Haye, half of an out. They said he could keep making videos, even profiting off of them, so long as he didn't reference his status as an athlete. He could even make video's that did reference that fact, BUT on those videos he could not collect any money.
De La Haye has declined that offer and thus will no longer be eligible to play college football. This all takes me back to the most overt outrage that the NCAA imposes upon it's athletes. They take away a persons right to profit off their own name. It has got to be the single most Un-American thing I can imagine.
It's also antithetical to the idea of a student athlete. As a student you are supposed to be learning the skills that can someday make you a useful member of the work force. De La Haye's Youtube page is the sort of thing that could lead either to a good job working for some network or internet site, it may even allow him to stand alone with his own following. If this was any other student on campus it would be lauded and applauded...
Instead here we are. Yet again. With the NCAA asserting loudly, and if not proudly, at least forcefully, that "no one can make money off of college athletics" except for them, which is a travesty. That is today's take.
