Heavily-recruited black football stars: Should they choose the money over the culture?
Heavily-recruited black football stars: Should they choose the money over the culture?
I cannot imagine making that choice but that is exactly the conversation journalist and writer, Jemele Hill, of the Atlantic, formerly of ESPN, wants to jump-start, and it is an interesting one.
Before the late 1960s, black collegiate football talent was cultivated and educated at our country’s historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), like Alcorn State, Howard, North Carolina A&T, Prairie View A&M, and Tennessee State. HBCUs gave us legends such as Jerry Rice from Mississippi Valley State University, Michael Strahan from Texas Southern University, and Doug Williams, a Super Bowl champ and MVP from Grambling State University, and these players were lucky to make the jump to the NFL because of their skills, though their schools never garnered national attention.
Today’s HBCUs no longer have access to the superstar black football players (or basketball players) because the predominantly white college institutions (PWIs) promise fame, media and future money in the NFL. But while black players have access to those pools of resources at PWIs, they languish in the classrooms and few actually graduate with a marketable degree. So, there’s a trade-off.
But what if those black players decided to use the HBCU platform instead? Force media and national championship sponsors to come to them and they secure a great education from a historic college in the event football does not work out?
Think of the money and resources, through media, equipment, uniform and other marketing deals, these star black athletes could generate for HBCUs, instead of those hundreds of millions of dollars filling the coffers of schools like Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Georgia, LSU and Ohio State (money the athletes personally never see, by the way)? As Ms. Hill points out, if you combined the school endowments of all 101 current HBCUs, it would represent just 1/10th of Harvard’s.
Our HBCUs have a long and storied history in this country, but they are languishing without resources and state-of-the-art facilities. Nevertheless, they still produce the largest number of black judges at 80%, and 50% of the black lawyers and doctors we have in America today. These institutions are excellent at preparing African-American college students for life after college, and helping create a large, well-rounded black professional class.
Personally, Pittstop would love to see more black recruits consider HBCUs than just going for the big name PWI. I feel like, one, they would be surrounded by their own culture and develop a closer relationship with their history. Two, the money they generate would benefit African-American communities and help close the wealth gap between blacks and whites in this country. And, lastly, the NCAA would have to ensure HBCUs are part of the conversation when it comes to collegiate sports, creating a more balanced playing field between HBCUs and other colleges.
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