Dick Vitale apologizes for comparing Arian Foster, paid NCAA players to prostitutes

Dick Vitale tweeted that any NCAA player who receives money is "selling his body." (Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)

ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale has apologized for a tweet he posted Friday afternoon comparing NCAA athletes who accept money on the side during their collegiate careers to prostitutes.

"When they put their hand out like a prostitute & take it they don't say a word - moaning yrs later = SAD!" Vitale tweeted in reply to a column by CBSSports.com's Greg Doyel about Houston Texans running back Arian Foster's recent admission that he received money while at the University of Tennessee.

Vitale clarified his comments hours later, writing that a player taking money is "selling his body" and that while he believes players should be paid, they should not violate the rules that are in place.

https://twitter.com/DickieV/status/381130114274033664

He apologized via Twitter on Saturday afternoon.

https://twitter.com/DickieV/status/381187531062386688

https://twitter.com/DickieV/status/381438662418116608

The issue of college athlete compensation has once again become a hot topic in the wake of the Oklahoma State and SEC football scandals.

"I'm a firm believer that an employee should get paid for his work," Foster said in an interview for the upcoming documentary Schooled: The Price of College Sports. "And, 100 percent, I see student athletes as employees. Hiding from it is just cowardly."

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