Start with an ever-increasing demand on student-athletes’ time…
Georgia coach Mark Richt was asked on Tuesday how much time players spend on football during the season.
“A lot,” he said. “We’ve got a 20-hour rule that’s time that is countable, which is film study, strength and conditioning, practice. For the things that don’t count … is when you’re in the training room, before and after, or any kind of film work they do on their own. Gameday counts as three hours, but if you leave on Friday for an away game and don’t come back till midnight the day of the game, that’s a long time too, you know? So there’s a lot of hours that are put in and it’s pretty amazing for them to do that and then do other things that they’ve got to do academically as well. … They don’t have a lot of free time. Sometimes we talk about teaching them how to manage their time, and they look at us like: ‘What time is that that you’re talking about?’ So they put a lot of hours in.”
Throw in some frustration over a lack of player empowerment…
“But what this does … it ensures that players have a voice and whatever route this goes and whatever structure comes from college sports, we have input. We’re out there sacrificing so much. We’re a big part of what college sports is today and the revenue that’s generated off of it. We deserve to have a say in that. We deserve a seat at the table.”
Add a dash of hypocrisy for zest…
I don’t buy the player safety [argument]. Nobody stood up for player safety when they wanted to add games. It seems to me that every time player safety comes up, it’s an auxiliary reason to make money somewhere else. To me, common sense [now] is the opposite of what Coach Bielema was saying. Slowing it down isn’t going to create greater player safety. Creating less contact is. Widening the field. Lengthening the field. Putting fewer guys on the field. Putting smaller guys on the field. Put fiber optics in the helmets so you can see how hard they’re hitting on every play.
And, voilà! The perfect shit sandwich recipe.