Slavery, no, but tweet contains validity
To everyone offended by Jalen Tabor’s perspective on history, please lighten up. The Florida cornerback said something right Tuesday. He just did it the wrong way.
The wrong way was comparing any modern-day work status to slavery. But when Tabor saw how much his parent company raked in last year, he couldn’t resist.
“The SEC Made 527.4 Million in Total Revenue and Players Ain’t Get A Penny. Modern Form Of Slavery,” he tweeted.
Just to drive home the obvious point — football players are not sold like cattle, forced to work 16 hours a day in the field, paid zero and owned by other human beings. Tabor quickly realized he’d kicked over a beehive and deleted the tweet.
“Went to far with slavery I can admit I’m wrong on that,” he posted on Twitter. “But y’all get the message.”
He followed that with, “Went to far with the slavery thing and I apologize, can’t let my emotions get to me. But y’all get the message.” If not, here it is: The SEC has turned into Apple. Outgoing Commissioner Mike Slive would be Steve Jobs. Tabor and his teammates would be workers in Chinese iPhone sweatshops making $1.85 an hour.
But hey, they get free room and board.
I used to think that was enough for “student-athletes.” Heck, it was enough when head coaches made a paltry $1 million a year. Now the money has gotten so ridiculous, top assistants make twice that.
It’s true that such wealth is concentrated in the upper-echelon conferences. But you need to ask why the rich are getting richer. It’s due to having an excellent product and shrewd management.
Slive made $3.6 million in base pay last year, according to tax returns provided to CBS Sports. That was a nice $1.5 million bump from the previous year and three times what he made in 2012.
That $527.4 million that set Tabor off was a 62 percent increase from the previous year. It was due to the advent of the College Football Playoff and the SEC Network. The cash cows came home.
Under Slive, the SEC has become the $EC. Revenue has increased 222 percent since 2008. The conference distributed $32.7 million to each of its 14 schools last year. That was up $11 million in one year.
Slive has been one of the guiding forces in the college football revenue revolution. He got all those raises because he earned them. If anything, he’s probably underpaid.
But while he’s gotten richer, the true source of all those riches hasn’t shared in the wealth.
Yes, a scholarship is worth a lot ($42,000 a year for an out-of-stater such as Tabor). And UF players now get a yearly $3,320 stipend.
If that’s slavery, a lot of students would love to be in such chains. But football players aren’t just any students. They aren’t just part of the athletic-industrial complex. They are The Show. Without them, the UF athletic department would not have come close to making $124 million in 2014. Without them, Slive wouldn’t have a product to peddle, unless you think viewers are dying to watch cross country replays on the SEC Network or 90,000 people would pay to watch a women’s soccer match.
Tabor’s tweet on paying athletes raises the usual prickly questions: Who should get it? Should starters get more than reserves? Wouldn’t it lead to illicit bidding wars in recruiting? Are we forgetting the true purpose of academia?
That last one is easy to answer. No, we’re not forgetting. It’s already forgotten.
College football has become a multibillion dollar business thanks to guys such as Slive. But more so, it’s become a multibillion dollar business thanks to guys such as Tabor.
Shouldn’t they both be rewarded for a job well done?