Profiles in pettiness

Talk about your futile and stupid gestures…

Richard Burr, one of two former scholarship college athletes in the U.S. Senate, promised to introduce legislation if athletes were able to profit off their name, image and likeness.

Now, with college athletes signing deals with companies big and small, the North Carolina Republican has followed through, introducing the NIL Scholarship Tax Act.

“If a student chooses to monetize their name, image, and likeness based on their connection to their school — in some cases earning them $1 million or more a year — their scholarship should be subject to federal income taxation,” said Burr, who played football at Wake Forest University in the 1970s.

“It’s critical that we help protect the successful collegiate sports model that has provided students with educational and professional opportunities for more than a century.”

Skip past the complete unlikelihood that this bill would ever come close to passing.  What exactly would it do to protect the amateurism model?  Would a kid turn down a million dollar NIL promotional deal because he’d have to pay tax on, say, a $50,000 scholly?  Not bloody likely.

There’s also the problem that students on scholarship who aren’t athletes, but receive outside income, don’t have their scholarship benefits taxed.  How could you treat them differently under the law?

The game is kind of given away with this:

Burr’s legislation would only impact athletes who receive more than $20,000 from outside compensation. Those who earn more would be required to include their scholarship as income for federal taxes. Athletes pay taxes on any outside compensation already.

Apparently, a little bit pregnant is okay with Burr.