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As a result, coaches and team officials have been subject to a great deal of criticism, as many have been using improper methods to recruit athletes for their teams. In the past half century, the NCAA, an amateur organization, has been no stranger to its share of corruption and scandal. The NCAA’s constitution states that “An amateur sportsman is one who engages in sports for the physical, mental or social benefits he derives therefrom, and to whom the sport is an avocation. Any college athlete who takes pay for participation in athletics does not meet this definition of amateurism.” (from In Praise of ‘Student-Athletes’: the NCAA is Haunted by its past, in The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 8 1999) In addition to athletic scholarships, statistics have shown that nearly 50% of college athletes have themselves - or know of - athletes who have received under-the-table-payments for their services. (from Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Exploiting College Athletes, page 63) Since just after its re-birth after World War II in 1946, the NCAA has been subject to endless controversy. At the time of its re-conception, football coaches in the NCAA were openly recruiting professional players for teams and offering them rewards if they decided to join their squads. In addition, gambling and rumours of fixed games plagued college basketball at that time. NCAA executive Kenneth (Tug) Wilson ordered that teams who broke rules would be penalized by the NCAA. (from In Praise of ‘Student-Athletes’: the NCAA is Haunted by its Past, in The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 8 1999) More recently, Mike Rozier, a winner of the prestigious Heisman Trophy, the award given annually to the best college football player in the United States, estimated that he received 1,200 letters while playing football for the Cornhuskers at the University of Nebraska. He commented that: “most of the letters came from people I had never heard of, and who did not know me, or want to know me. All they wanted was to line their pockets with the money that I would soon earn in professional football.” (from Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Exploiting College Athletes, pages 14-16) Most college athletes find agents during their years in college, and generally keep the same agent when they become professionals. Agents, who are aware that it is illegal to give players money while they are still in college, lend money to the players, and are then paid back once the athlete is drafted by a professional team. This technique of signing athletes is so common today, that controlling it is nearly impossible. (from Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Exploiting College Athletes, page 15) Spike Lee’s He Got Game (1998) directly addresses these issues of corruption in collegiate athletics. Milwaukee Buck’s star Ray Allen plays Jesus Shuttlesworth, a character who is the number one ranked and most recruited high school basketball player in the United States. This fictional character, like the real life athletes that his character is based on, is faced with decisions that would be difficult for anyone to make. Keep in mind that Jesus is an 18 year old whose father is in jail for killing his mother, and who is forced to take care of his younger sister all alone. Despite Jesus’s modesty and level-head, those closest to him can’t help but get caught up in the idea that Jesus will soon be a multi-millionaire. Jesus’s uncle buys him a car with money he does not have, in hopes that Jesus will one day, in return, give his uncle a large portion of his fortune. His high school coach offers to give him ten thousand dollars cash as a ‘thank you’ for helping lead his team to a national championship, but with real hopes for retribution a few years down the road. Jesus casually refuses the money, and walks out of his coach’s office. Jesus also discovers that his girlfriend, whom he loved, was simply a hired assistant of a big-time sports agent hoping to land Shuttlesworth as a new client. The agent with whom she attempts to set up the young star, offers Jesus a valuable watch as incentive to sign a contract to enter the National Basketball Association draft immediately after graduating from high school. Despite all of the corrupt activity around him, and the temptation he must feel, Jesus is the only one able to stay focused and overlook the money that would eventually be his. Aside from these influences that Jesus is exposed to, he is also feeling a great deal of his pressure from his father to enrol at Big State University. His father was informed by the Warden at Attica State Penitentiary that he could get early parole if he convinced his son to attend Big State, the alma matter of the Governor of New York. Jesus, who eventually decides to enrol at Big State University, is a character with strong morals and ideals. As difficult as it must be for him to turn away cash, cars, jewellery and women, Jesus simply refuses all of it. He is a character who symbolizes strength, determination, and strong moral values. The accuracy of the depiction of corruption in collegiate athletics in He Got Game is excellent. Although many believe that the majority of corrupt and scandalous activity is sports is still undocumented, a wealth of knowledge about the issue does exist today. Many NCAA naturalists and historians feel that the NCAA has become too commercial and widespread, thus causing owners and other team and league executives to cheat and make illegal deals in order to generate more income for their teams and programs. (from Agents of Opportunity: Sports Agents and Corruption in Collegiate Sports, pages 87-88) As a result, collegiate athletics, which in essence are intended to be a pure form of sport, has become as corrupt, if not more so, than professional sports today. Bibliography: Bibliography Byers, Walter: Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Exploiting Collge Athletes, Sunrise Publishing (New Jersey - 1995) Crothers, Tim: “College Football People”, Sports Illustrated, Volume 79, No. 9. Page 63. August 30, 1993 Kindred, Dave: “The Madness of College Athletics”, The Sporting News, Volume 223, Issue 12, Page 71. March 22, 1999 Sack, Allen L. and Stavrowsky, Ellen T.: College Athletes for Hire: The Evolution and Legacy of the NCAA’s Amateur Myth, Prager Publishers (Connecticut - 1998) Shropshire, Kenneth L.: Agents of Opportunity: Sports Agents and Corruption in College Sports, University of Pennsylvania Press (Philadelphia - 1990) Sperber, Murray: “In Praise of ‘Student Athletes’: the NCAA is Haunted by its Past”, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Volume 45, Issue 18, Page 76. January 8, 1999 Unknown Author: “Black Sox Scandal”, Insight on the News, Volume 11, No. 30, Page 40. August 7, 1995 Word Count: 1056
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