Running head: ARE STUDENT ATHLETES INDENTURED SERVANTS? 1
Are Student Athletes Indentured Servants? Should they be paid?
Victor Williams , Devan Lockington , Dominique Harris, Gourney Sloan
Davenport University
Sports Management 211
Tim Selgo
February 21,2017
ARE STUDENT ATHLETES INDENTURED STUDENTS 2
College is a great place, and basically needed within today’s world. A degree is a must
for survival within this new decade, and this is made much easier to achieve when you are a
college athlete. Many college athletes are given scholarships to help the cost of getting through
and not having a future burden of paying back loans. The problem is that most college athletes
only have time for school and their given sport, which almost always leaves no time for a side
job as well. This causes the problem of college athletes not having any money to support
themselves while in school; even though they get a free education they cannot support things
such as eating, driving, and entertainment. Something must be done to counteract this because
college athletes just like everyone else in college are still people who have needs.
College athletes are suffering in college ratherwhether people know it or not, and
if they do not get the help they need then it can only get worst. While some athletes might get a
little money every now and then from family members or things like this, most athletes have no
one there to give them funds. Pete Volk, a writer for sbnation (a sports website), explained some
very hard times from an interview with NFL cornerback Richard Sherman where Sherman states
“people are upset when a student-athlete says they need a little cash. Well I can tell you from
experience, I had negative 40 bucks in my account” (2015). This comes from the mouth of a man
who played many years of football at a division 1 school and even he was without money more
than he was with it. One of the most devastating things in that interview was when Sherman
states “you have to make decisions on whether you get gas for your car or whether you get a
meal for the day. (2015)” thisThis sounds like torture because who would make a person decide
between getting to their destination, or missing out on going where they were going and getting
some food. This is something that most college athletes deal with on a day to day basis but like
ARE STUDENT ATHLETES INDENTURED STUDENTS 3
Sherman said, people do not like when they feel you are getting a free ride in college, and still
asking for more.
Being a student athlete is a job within itself so why shouldn’t these athletes get
paid to do their job.? For most student athletes their time is consumed by weightlifting at some
point in the day, followed by some type of practice, and that is already about 6 hours of their day
gone. A normal job is considered a “9 to 5” because that’s how long people work for full time
jobs which are 8 hours a day. So with this info, a student athlete will already be almost working
just as much as a normal working person who gets paid for their job. Athletes do all this work
before they even go to their class or go study, so with classes and studying added into a student
athlete’s day they will probably be well over the 8 hours a day mark of a normal job. With this
kind of schedule student athletes are forced to pick and choose what they need to do and what
they want to do. If a college student playing sports and is full time in school then they most
likely have a full schedule that could take their entire day and leave no time for working.
Athletes need one or two things, either a new system in which they can play their sport and get
paid, or given enough time to go out and get a job for themselves.
For this problem it isthere are many things that could be done as a solution to this
problem, because it is not like it is a very hard issue to fix. The best plan of attack to implement
paying student athletes is to set up a fund just for paying them. This can be done in many ways
but the main way is by setting aside some of the money from every sport that would be used for
other things such as new jersey’s, new equipment, etc. byBy doing this teams can ensure that
their players are being well fed for the grueling workouts and practices that come their way. Of
course athletes usually have meal plans that are set up by the school but sometimes grabbing a
quick bite to eat is not an option. This is especially hard when workouts are at 9-11 a.m. and you
ARE STUDENT ATHLETES INDENTURED STUDENTS 4
then need to shower before going to your class at 12 p.m. thereThere is no time usually leaving
players starving until possibly five if they do not move quickly enough. This is an extreme
problem when the cafeteria does not have anything a player would like to eat and instead would
want to buy some groceries for their room to cook something. Buying groceries is not an option
for most college athletes, because of the fact they have no income and only enough money to buy
things in small quantities. For example, for a given recipe you probably need the meat, the side,
the seasonings, something to drink with it, and other things but with an athlete not being paid
they have to pick and choose what they want to buy, if they can even buy food because they
might instead have to buy toiletries.
