Nice turn of phrase: “College football’s free-agent market is open…” Hey, it’s just like the pros do it! Except for that player payment part, of course.
Meanwhile, Richard Sherman’s got something to say to the “student-athletes are, too, being fairly compensated” crowd:
Sherman also talked about the resentment “people” harbor toward college athletes asking for money.
“They are upset when a student-athlete says they need a little cash,” he said. “Well, I can tell you from experience, I had negative-40 bucks in my account. Usually my account was in the negative more time than it was in the positive. You’ve got to make decisions on whether you get gas for your car or whether you get a meal for the day. You’ve got one of the two choices. People think, ‘Oh, you’re on scholarship.’ They pay for your room and board, they pay for your education, but to their knowledge, you’re there to play football. You’re not on scholarship for school and it sounds crazy when a student-athlete says that, but that’s those are the things coaches tell them every day: ‘You’re not on scholarship for school.’”
Sherman, in case you can’t recall, attended Stanford, a place with a pretty prestigious academic reputation. If coaches will say ‘You’re not on scholarship for school.’ there, at what P5 school won’t they say it? (At least after the kid’s no longer being recruited, that is.)
Get The Picture 
These aren’t allowed to go get jobs to earn spending money. As a guy that had to work his way through college to pay for everything, they deserve some spending money.
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And keep in mind Jim Harbaugh was his college coach.
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Sherman is a really bright guy. I will bet his financial status as a student is the same as most of them. That is why a guy like Gurley sold his autograph for less than the fair market value.
Back in 1970s when I was a UGA student from Atlanta I worked every summer. Every summer I worked with a few UGA and GA Tech football players. Those guys were able to earn spending money in the summer to supplement their scholarships. The scholarships in 2014 did not cover anything more than they did in 1974 but schools took away the ability to earn the supplement. College football is a year round job for those guys. Let’s compensate them.
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Do all D1 schools give stipends to their football players? Do those not count as “allowance” or is it just not enough? I’m asking because I have no idea how that all works
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Not know. Until the early 1970s scholarships included $15 per month “laundry money.” I think that if a player lives off campus he gets a meal allowance in an amount to reflect the value of the on campus meal plan and an allowance for rent in an amount of the value of the dorm, but nothing for incidentals.
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I have no problem with some kind of weekly stipend. However, Sherman is way off base, I suggest you read his entire comments. He goes on to say how much harder it is for athletes. Sorry, Richard, alot of people don’t get free rides with room, board, clothes, and meals. He went on to complain about having to finish classes before 3 so they can go to practice and only then does the athlete have time to study and whines that other students don’t realize how difficult that schedule is. Its as if he doesn’t realize alot of people have jobs while they are in college to pay for what he gets free. Cry me a river Richard.
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I’m sure the cadets at West Point and Annapolis would gladly take his Stanford schedule. And I’m not even talking about the ones who play football on top of their schedule!
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Don’t cadets and midshipmen get paid a salary?
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I am solidly in the “give players more” camp. If it’s a stipend, if it’s cost of attendance, whatever. However, Richard Sherman is full of crap and he’s way too smart to try to pull that “we have to choose between gas and a meal thing.” I refuse to believe that any scholarship athlete at a power 5 football school has ever gone hungry. It just doesn’t happen. Now, does he have to choose between putting gas in his car and eating at a restaurant somewhere? Most likely, and that SUCKS. Give the players money. But football players in the Pac 12 are just like the ones in the SEC, they get fed by the school. As someone who had to have the meal plan in order to survive at UGA, I can tell you that they’re fed pretty well. With the amount of money football brings in to a school on the backs of the players, they do deserve more compensation than just the scholly. But if you expect me to believe you had to go to bed hungry because your gas tank was on “E”, Richard, go sell it somewhere else.
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I guess Tyrone Prothro was really eating high off the hog, then.
It’s amazing how some of you know the players’ business better than they do themselves.
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Tyrone took out a student loan he had to pay back. That just goes to show there are options for athletes just like anyone else. Good for Tyrone.
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What is really amazing is how these guys dont understand the food issue.
The university just started doing unlimited food. I believe that the double dipped checks were meal checks to cover times when the dinning halls were closed. I believe those checks were $70 for the month? could have been the semester.
That prior to unlimited food, when they got back from a ball game, there wasnt a training table to grab a snack at. They were on their own. So get back from Knoxville @ 2am and are hungry, that money comes out of your pocket. No money in your pocket, go to bed hungry D1 athlete that just had 100k people pay $100 each to watch you play and millions more at home.
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You refuse to believe an athlete ever went hungry? When I was a UGA student in the 1970s all the dining halls were closed Sunday evenings. They all closed at 7:30 during the week. So, a player would have to buy his own meal Sunday evening, or if practice ended at 7:30 or he did not get back from a game until after 7:30 then he has to buy that meal.
Not all schools had cafeterias open 7 days a week.
The scholarship didn’t provide cash to pay for those Sunday night or after 7:30 meals.
Good rant, though.
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If you can’t afford gas, why do you have a car?
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Bottom line is cfb generates billions of dollars and the players get a very tiny fraction of the compensation. The surprise to me is they continue performing under a system where others receive stupendous compensation, and they receive a pittance.
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Sherman has some good things to say. Just wish he wasn’t such a dick when he says them.
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Have never felt that Sherman was a dick when he said anything. Maybe that is more about you and your feelings than anything Sherman is doing.
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Sherman IS a dick. If you can’t see that…….
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