Rooting for players who challenge an antiquated amateur system

Since the Olympics freed its athletes from the serfdom of amateurism, the only place on the face of the earth where sports are still big time, big money, but where the athletes are forced to play without pay is our American college football and basketball. Everywhere else, if there's real money involved, the athletes get their fair share -- just like the coaches and promoters and television networks and the guys who sell peanuts and popcorn.

But in the U.S., not only are our young football and basketball players forced to play without pay, but the NCAA cartel is in cahoots with the pro leagues so that a star athlete has to donate his time to some college for at least a year. This is not only a bonanza for the lucky college but also then for the NBA or the NFL -- because the pros profit by the publicity the star earned when he had to play for free while his coach pocketed millionaire money.

Football players don't really have any choice but to go to college and fatten themselves up for the NFL, but a trickle of independent-minded young basketball players are beginning to challenge the system. Of course, they have to leave the idealistic, capitalistic United States for socialistic old Europe to make an honest living, but a couple have already dared to be pioneers.

Last year, a high-school graduate named Brandon Jennings decided to skip mandatory college ball and make a couple million dollars playing in Rome. He's struggled in the Italian pros, but that's really beside the point. What mattered is that he had the guts to take a chance, and he's slated to be selected sixth or seventh in the NBA draft this year. Now, a bright high-school junior in San Diego named Jeremy Tyler is planning to take the same route.

Naturally, some coaches and NCAA sycophants are bewailing this turn of events -- but that's to be expected. It's just like it was in the pros when players first brought in agents or fought for free agency. The guys in charge always want to subjugate athletes, to maintain their own sweet advantage.

The case of American college football and basketball is all the more egregious now because coerced amateurism has everywhere else been discredited. The two high-profit American team sports are the only rotten boroughs left, and we can only root for the young players brave enough to challenge an anarchistic and antiquated system.

Published Apr 29, 2009

FRANK DEFORD

Frank Deford is among the most versatile of American writers. His work has appeared in virtually every medium, including print, where he has written eloquently for Sports Illustrated since 1962. Deford is currently the magazine's Senior Contributing Writer and contributes a weekly column to SI.com. Deford can be heard as a commentator each week on Morning Edition. On television he is a regular correspondent on the HBO show Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. He is the author of 15 books, and his latest,The Enitled, a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball, was published in 2007 to exceptional reviews. He and Red Smith are the only writers with multiple features in The Best American Sports Writing of the Century. Editor David Halberstam selected Deford's 1981 Sports Illustrated profile on Bobby Knight (The Rabbit Hunter) and his 1985 SI profile of boxer Billy Conn (The Boxer and the Blonde) for that prestigious anthology. For Deford the comparison is meaningful. "Red Smith was the finest columnist, and I mean not just sports columnist," Deford told Powell's Books in 2007. "I've always said that Red is like Vermeer, with those tiny, priceless pieces. Five hundred words, perfectly chosen, crafted. Best literary columnist, in any newspaper, that I've ever seen." Deford was elected to the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. Six times at Sports Illustrated Deford was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of The Year. The American Journalism Review has likewise cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of The Year by the Washington Journalism Review. Deford has also been presented with the National Magazine Award for profiles; a Christopher Award; and journalism honor awards from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University; and he has received many honorary degrees. The Sporting News has described Deford as "the most influential sports voice among members of the print media," and the magazine GQ has called him, simply, "The world's greatest sportswriter." In broadcast, Deford has won a Cable Ace award, an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award for his television work. In 2005 ESPN presented a television biography of Deford's life and work, You Write Better Than You Play. Deford has spoken at well over a hundred colleges, as well as at forums, conventions and on cruise ships around the world. He served as the editor-in-chief of The National Sports Daily in its brief but celebrated existence. Deford also wrote Sports Illustrated's first Point After column, in 1986. Two of Deford's books, the novel, Everybody's All-American, and Alex: The Life Of A Child, his memoir about his daughter who died of cystic fibrosis, have been made into movies. Two of his original screenplays have also been filmed. For 16 years Deford served as national chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and he remains chairman emeritus. He resides in Westport, CT, with his wife, Carol. They have two grown children – a son, Christian, and a daughter, Scarlet. A native of Baltimore, Deford is a graduate of Princeton University, where he has taught American Studies.

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