Murphy's first report offers no specific roadmap or plan to implement change to pay student-athletesGETTY IMAGES
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Thursday became the latest politician to call for student-athletes to be paid, releasing the "first in a series of reports that seek to expose the problems in college sports," according to Paul Doyle of the CONNECTICUT POST. Murphy in statement called the NCAA "broken" and wrote, "Most fans recognize that the NCAA today isn't acting in the best interest of many student-athletes." The report "offers no specific roadmap or plan to implement change." Future reports from Murphy will "examine the true nature of amateurism, how programs fail to provide a full education to student-athletes, the long-term health consequences college athletes face, and, ultimately, how to address issues within the college sports industry" (CTPOST.com, 3/28). Murphy said that "not much in his report will surprise" fans who follow college sports. However, SI.com's Charlotte Wilder noted what Murphy "hopes to do ... is reach people who don't know how unfair the system is." He wants to "present statistics backing up his point in a light so stark that they become hard to ignore, even to those who preach about the purity of the college game." Murphy acknowledged that the "solution to paying athletes will be tricky." He said, "I don't deny that the system to compensate kids wouldn't be hard to figure out, but it can't be any harder than the system they've already created" (SI.com, 3/28).
JOINING VOICES: In Hartford, Alex Putterman noted Murphy "questions how universities can spend lavishly on coaches salaries and sports facilities while restricting compensation" for the players themselves. Murphy: "This is a civil rights issue. These are kids who may not officially be employees but are essentially working for a for-profit industry who aren't getting compensated." Putterman noted Murphy is not the "first public official to propose allowing college athletes to be paid," as U.S. Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) "introduced a bill earlier this month that would let athletes profit from their images and likenesses, such as through sponsorship deals." Legislators in California and Washington also "have proposed similar legislation," while presidential candidate Andrew Yang has argued that players "should be compensated by the NCAA directly" (HARTFORD COURANT, 3/29).
