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Thinking of NIL, the changing landscape of college football ... and Kain Colter

olshin

Well-Known Member
Oct 6, 2001
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I mean ...... how much different would things look right now in college sports if the NCAA had just said sure, you guys can form a union and lets hammer out a collective bargained agreement making you all school employees.

I can't help thinking about MLB Free Agency ... and how the owners basically played themselves into it by refusing to give the players even one inch in more ridiculous times. NCAA must not have read or understood that history.

Instead Colter was shunned .... and the NCAA was too stupid to realize he might have been - from their perspective - the savior.

Anyway ... just my .02 ... off to read about college free agency ... i mean the portal and collectives.
 
I mean ...... how much different would things look right now in college sports if the NCAA had just said sure, you guys can form a union and lets hammer out a collective bargained agreement making you all school employees.

I can't help thinking about MLB Free Agency ... and how the owners basically played themselves into it by refusing to give the players even one inch in more ridiculous times. NCAA must not have read or understood that history.

Instead Colter was shunned .... and the NCAA was too stupid to realize he might have been - from their perspective - the savior.

Anyway ... just my .02 ... off to read about college free agency ... i mean the portal and collectives.
Kain is a modern day Curt Flood.
 
I admit at the time I thought it was way out there what Colter was trying to do. In hindsight it was really visionary and probably would have been a way more regulated and fair compensation system.
Agreed. In reality, most of what Colter and crew was proposing is exactly what most people in retrospect want (not the $ figures, but a fair and regulated system of employment)
 
Speaking of KC, wondering whatever happened to him. There was that sad report 3 1/2 years ago. Have not seen anything since (not that I've searched that hard).
 
Speaking of KC, wondering whatever happened to him. There was that sad report 3 1/2 years ago. Have not seen anything since (not that I've searched that hard).
This is that report. Gutting. I wonder if he’s suffered due to lack of medical access.

 
This is that report. Gutting. I wonder if he’s suffered due to lack of medical access.

thats not good.
makes me wonder if CTE class action lawsuits are coming eventually.
 
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thats not good.
makes me wonder if CTE class action lawsuits are coming eventually.
Pretty much guaranteed. The problem right now is CTE can’t be officially diagnosed until post mortem and for the players that have played football since they were little kids the other problem is it’s hard to prove exactly when the player developed CTE. Is it the pee wee football team’s liability? The High School’s liability? Or the College’s liability?
 
thats not good.
makes me wonder if CTE class action lawsuits are coming eventually.
It’s understandable to implicate CTE whenever a former FB player struggles with mental illness but correlation does not imply causation. There are unfortunately many young people whose mental illness first manifests in the early 20s.

There is an equally sad athlete story with NU connection - Debi Thomas, Olympic medalist skater, who later graduated from NU medical school (I was in an elevator with her once 😄) but then developed bipolar disorder and at one point was living in a trailer. But now it looks like she’s back skating again which is great to see!
 
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Pretty much guaranteed. The problem right now is CTE can’t be officially diagnosed until post mortem and for the players that have played football since they were little kids the other problem is it’s hard to prove exactly when the player developed CTE. Is it the pee wee football team’s liability? The High School’s liability? Or the College’s liability?
Incorrect as usual. Cappy should ban you for spreading misinformation about CTE.
 
I'll never forget Fitz's reaction to Colter's union move. His first statement was to celebrate his players speaking up and having a view. That lasted all of 5 minutes. After that, the university likely made it clear that a union can't fly, after which every sentence Fitz uttered included the words "educate young men". I was not particularly pro-union at the time, but even for me, it was clear that that word "educate" was a clumsy code word for union busting.

Say what you will about NIL, paying players, etc. I don't know where I stand on that. But it is really sad to see what Colter has lost. If any player put their body on the line to win, it was him - and apparently he is now paying for it. It also seems Northwestern missed a historic opportunity to show how paradigms are changed.
 
I'll never forget Fitz's reaction to Colter's union move. His first statement was to celebrate his players speaking up and having a view. That lasted all of 5 minutes. After that, the university likely made it clear that a union can't fly, after which every sentence Fitz uttered included the words "educate young men". I was not particularly pro-union at the time, but even for me, it was clear that that word "educate" was a clumsy code word for union busting.

Say what you will about NIL, paying players, etc. I don't know where I stand on that. But it is really sad to see what Colter has lost. If any player put their body on the line to win, it was him - and apparently he is now paying for it. It also seems Northwestern missed a historic opportunity to show how paradigms are changed.
Agreed. Fitz was a fraud and a coward. I hope Colter got the help he clearly needs. 🙏
 
I'll never forget Fitz's reaction to Colter's union move. His first statement was to celebrate his players speaking up and having a view. That lasted all of 5 minutes. After that, the university likely made it clear that a union can't fly, after which every sentence Fitz uttered included the words "educate young men". I was not particularly pro-union at the time, but even for me, it was clear that that word "educate" was a clumsy code word for union busting.

Say what you will about NIL, paying players, etc. I don't know where I stand on that. But it is really sad to see what Colter has lost. If any player put their body on the line to win, it was him - and apparently he is now paying for it. It also seems Northwestern missed a historic opportunity to show how paradigms are changed.

Folks who have a problem with what Kain did should have a bigger problem how he tried implementing change rather than the change he aimed for.
 
Fraud and coward? Hardly! You don't think the people above him told him what to say?
Fitz. Gragg. Schill. The NU BoT. Rick Taylor too.

They are All are frauds, cowards, and thieves in my book.

The NULC keeps mailing me asking me for donations. 😂 never again, Evanston! 🖕
 
Folks who have a problem with what Kain did should have a bigger problem how he tried implementing change rather than the change he aimed for.
I think that's fair.
Unfortunately, I think there was a lot of CYOA in that situation. To think these guys are anything but employees of the school in a multi-billion dollar enterprise is probably living in the 1950s. Waiting until it was too late to come up with a workable framework that kept most of what we enjoy intact with a sensible solution is no longer in the cards, I'm afraid.
 
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