[NU Sports] FW: interesting column by NU alum Darren Rovell

[Jim Leonard]

Dennis,

I don't know the situation with the Georgia player who sold his jersey online - 
he might be very wealthy for all I know. I was referring to the general problem 
or scholarship athletes who need some spending money. They can't work during the 
school year and there are problems with summer jobs. I know that 1-2 players 
were busted at Oklahoma a few years ago for taking no-show jobs from boosters. 

It sounds like scholarship athletes have it made because they don't pay anything 
for school, but some of them actually come from very poor backgrounds. I know 
that in 1994 Darnell Autry road a greyhound bus all the way from Evanston to 
Tempe, AZ to spending the holidays at home because he couldn't (seriously could 
not) afford a plane ticket. I just think some of this could be solved if 
student-atheletes had access to some cash in a way that did not conflict with 
NCAA rules - all on the up and up. 

And this is a small point, but all loans are tax free. The football players 
could do cash advances on credit cards to have the spending money I described 
above. The would pay outrageous interest rates, but that wouldn't be considered 
taxable income and neither would the loans I proposed. 

Go Cats!
JIm
 




----- Original Message ----
From: Dennis W. Brandt <tbng at comcast.net>
To: Jim Leonard <jleonard518 at yahoo.com>; Northwestern Wildcats 
<nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Sent: Thu, September 30, 2010 4:25:36 AM
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] FW: interesting column by NU alum Darren Rovell

> Why not let scholarship athletes borrow up to $4,000 a year so that they
> have spending money when they are in school? Then they can get on a loan
> repayment program and pay interest like everyone else.

So, after student-athletes get a free $100,000 - $200,000 education (and 
possibly even a free master's degree should they redshirt), you now want to loan 
them tax-free spending money?  Why should only athletic scholarship students 
enjoy this perk?  Not buying it.