Nothing but Nil
What a mess.
People pampered on so many levels from an early age and given a free ride to some of the best and worst colleges and universities in the country were perceived by some as being taken advantage of at levels sold as equal to or worse than those received by indigenous peoples and those brought to this country and forced to work in slavery. To make up for this perceived tragic injustice some idiots proposed paying them for name, image, and likeness (NIL) rather than allowing “boosters” to pay them “under the table” for going to school.
Who thought pay for play and the transfer portal (i.e., allowing scholarship and other athletes to place their name in an on-line database declaring their interest in transferring for better pay and treatment) were good ideas that would not go horribly wrong; and potentially more wrong than what was trying to be righted?
Who thought that a once nefarious, unsavory, and duplicitous activity would suddenly become ethical, principled, and just?
Who thought paying scholastic athletes was a bad idea, but paying them differently was a good idea?
Who thought this was the right way to give athletes “a piece of the pie” in college sports?
Clearly promoted and spurred on by social media wizards and other brainless beyond belief dreamers, NIL and “the portal” quickly became calamities and circuses conceived and propelled by fiction rather than fact. NIL is a selfie that bears no value except to the already massively self-indulged. It is bupkis, diddly, naught, nada, nix, nil, nothing, scratch, wind, zero, zip, zilch; and only people with no responsibility for outcome or concern for others would allow such ridiculous caca boil to fester.
Why is this still not cheating? Why when it was formerly considered unacceptable to pay players now considered acceptable to pay players. Either way it is and has been going on openly or secretly and no good can or has come from it. Stupid is stupid–legal or illegal and saying it isn’t doesn’t change it.
When you start a fire with “boosters” paying or getting kids paid, there is no controlling or holding it back.
And how about this…
About two years (July 2023) after college athletes have been able to profit off their name, image, and likeness, the head coach of a team in the powerful Southeastern Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) says NIL is “legalized cheating” that has made college football “a disaster;” and, some believe it will be an ongoing challenge to perfect the system. Sorry, Charlie. There is no coming back from this one! Good teams remain good teams and no good has come from paying barely 20-year-olds to play here, there, or anywhere,
And this…
With more than 11.5 million jobs available, a record 4.5 million quit work and many of them bought heavy-duty work trucks that they don’t need, can’t afford, and will never have to pay for as long as studies show that people who take on debt are at greater mental health risk than those who do not take on debt; and, as long as policy makers believe that giving people money is a good idea and impotent pitches like “let’s make a plan” and “plan with confidence” flood the airwaves in search of many spending money they don’t have and creating continuing large and small financial “crises.” I heard that the whole thing makes the “Anchor for America” weary.
And this…
More than 4 million Americans owe almost 2 trillion dollars in student loans. At various times over the years, liberal politicians have proposed “forgiveness” for some of this debt. This has created a new mental health problem for millions who pay their debts and find out that millions of their neighbors and peers have received debt relief from an idiot in our white house. Coupled with daily records of people quitting their jobs creating another portal for getting free money many are questioning the need to work when you can get what you want on credit that will probably be forgiven; and if not, you just drive away in a new car until somebody comes to get it?
And that’s not all…
Then there are those who spend billions apparently without thinking. Why did Elon Musk not just reverse engineer a social media site to connect people and allow them to share their thoughts with a big audience and make it better with a new manifesto for a fraction of the price he has proposed to pay for Twitter? When didn’t he assume the number of spam or “fake” accounts on the platform were lies before he bought the dumb thing? How does this level of “buyer’s remorse” happen? Why doesn’t he spend money doing good for others rather than self-serving $#!T like that BigFuDung haircut?
Of course, proposed is not promised or produced and there is no way to predict, control, or correct outcomes from stupidity like NIL, frivolous spending, selective loan forgiveness, and billionaire self-indulgence turned to greed (e.g., Dustin Johnson earned more money for joining the LIV Golf series than Tiger Woods claimed in his entire PGA Tour career for on-course earnings).
