The true meaning of amateurism

A couple of years ago, I touched on a hideous lawsuit filed against the NCAA in the wake of a Division III player’s death because… well, because some of his coaches were assholes, the school had no coherent policy regarding head injuries and the NCAA, for all its blathering about concern for the student-athlete, admitted it took no steps to monitor its member schools about that.

David Klossner, former NCAA director of health and safety, admitted as much in a deposition this year in an unrelated federal lawsuit challenging the NCAA’s concussion policy:

Q: Are member institutions required to submit their concussion management plans to the NCAA?

A: No.

Q: Have any member schools been disciplined regarding concussion management plans?

A: Not to my knowledge.

Q: Has the NCAA considered disciplining any member institutions regarding concussion management plans?

A: No, not to my knowledge.

In an interview with The Washington Times weeks before the deposition, Mr. Klossner and an NCAA representative said no university, to their knowledge, had been investigated or penalized for violating the rule.

A slew of internal NCAA emails made public in July from the unrelated case revealed an organization where staffers worried about liability and some mocked concerns about the issue.

If you look up the word “callous” in the dictionary, it’s accompanied by a picture of Mark Emmert.

I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t catch a more recent development in the case.  No, it hasn’t settled.  It hasn’t even gone to court yet.

That’s because the NCAA has done its best over the past couple of years to stonewall it.  And there’s where things have moved from callous to putrid. (h/t)

Last month, the NCAA asked a Montgomery County Circuit court judge to seal 14 documents in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the family of late Frostburg State University football player Derek Sheely.

The internal emails, memos and meeting minutes in question deal with the NCAA’s response to concussions, including research and proposed rule changes.

In court documents, the NCAA said that allowing the documents to be public “would have a chilling effect on the candid and frank debate necessary to ensure a thoughtful process” and “may be harmful to the NCAA’s legitimate business interests.”

Are you getting that?  Student-athletes, those noble amateurs, aren’t allowed to have business interests, but the NCAA’s half-assed approach to dealing with their well-being – that has to be weighed against its legitimate business interests.  What might those be, you ask?  Welp,

Disclosing the documents could damage “student health and safety” if “picked up by the media,” the NCAA said in the documents.

Legitimate?  I do not think that word means what you think it means.

Burn the whole joint down.  The sooner, the better.