PFT: Saban considers freezing out NFL teams

[cowboyjoe]

Saban considers freezing out NFL teams
Posted by Mike Florio on July 20, 2010 7:16 PM ET
As the NCAA continues its suddenly comprehensive attempt to clean up a mess that has been languishing on the carpet for years, one former NFL coach turned Alabama coach, who famously said he wouldn't be the Alabama coach, is coming close to calling for college football programs to freeze out the NFL, if the pro game can't keep agents from paying players.

"What the NFL Players Association and the NFL need to do is if any agent breaks a rule and causes ineligibility for a player, they should suspend his [agent's] license for a year or two," Nick Saban told ESPN.com, via CFT. "I'm about ready for college football to say, 'Let's just throw the NFL out. Don't let them evaluate players. Don't let them talk to players. Let them do it at the combine.' If they are not going to help us, why should we help them?"

Saban is upset because the Tide could be the latest program to possibly get rolled by the NCAA. Alabama currently is looking into whether defensive end Marcel Dareus blew his eligibility by "taking his talents to South Beach" earlier this summer for a party hosted by an agent.

Saban has picked a valid target, but the aim is wrong. If an agent pays a player, he's already subject to punishment. The problem is that, previously, neither the NCAA nor the NFLPA did anything to enforce the rules. With the Reggie Bush case prompting an epiphany for the NCAA, the next logical step will be for the union to stand up and take action against agents who pay players before their eligibility ends.

Of course, full and complete and consistent enforcement of that rule could mean that not many agents would be left.

"Right now, agents are screwing it up," Saban said. "They are taking the eligibility of players. It's not right that those players do the wrong thing. We have a great education process here. We have a full-time worker who meets with players and their families and does everything else."

Saban's threat should get the league's attention. Pro football teams, as Saban knows, tiptoe on eggshells to cater to college coaches, given that NCAA football provides a free farm system for the NFL. If more coaches begin to call for the NFL to be cut off, the league's scouting efforts will suffer.

And so the league needs to lean on the union to police the agents. As if the league and the union didn't already have enough issues between them.

 

[BourbonBalz]

I don't care a lot for Saban, but I've got to agree with him on this issue. Agents are crap for the most part. They don't care what they do as long as they end up with a buck.

 

[big dog cowboy]

"What the NFL Players Association and the NFL need to do is if any agent breaks a rule and causes ineligibility for a player, they should suspend his [agent's] license for a year or two,"

I'd love to see that happen.

It's way past time for someone to put these agents in check.

 

[ThreeSportStar80]

Who cares what Saban "thinks"... The NCAA is making millions upon millions off of athletes, they should be getting paid.

 

[jswalker1981]

Who cares what Saban "thinks"... The NCAA is making millions upon millions off of athletes, they should be getting paid.

Very true.

 

[casmith07]

Good job, Saban. Way to completely miss the origin o the problem.

 

[Kangaroo]

Good job, Saban. Way to completely miss the origin o the problem.

What that young kids that come from poor families are easily swayed by the money being flashed to them.

To many people want easy money their is a reason scammers/con artist have been around since the dawn of time.

 

[kmp77]

Who cares what Saban "thinks"... The NCAA is making millions upon millions off of athletes, they should be getting paid.

I kinda agree, but some of these schools tuition would be over $100k for their stay. That's enough payment in some cases. Maybe give them enough so they don't have to have a job...$100-200 a week or something. I'm on the fence about this issue with agents though. If a normal student going to be an engineer started talking to "agents" before he graduated and started looking for a job, it wouldn't be breaking any rules. You go to college to get a job, weather it be pro sports or to be a doctor, that's the whole point so not sure why talking to agents is "wrong".

 

[romo2to]

I kinda agree, but some of these schools tuition would be over $100k for their stay. That's enough payment in some cases. Maybe give them enough so they don't have to have a job...$100-200 a week or something. I'm on the fence about this issue with agents though. If a normal student going to be an engineer started talking to "agents" before he graduated and started looking for a job, it wouldn't be breaking any rules. You go to college to get a job, weather it be pro sports or to be a doctor, that's the whole point so not sure why talking to agents is "wrong".

100k is a drop in the bucket to what they profit off these kids.

Jersey Sales with the players' number. Video Game sales with full roster of all the players (not by name though). Ticket sales.

 

[RS12]

Saban is great coach but not the most credible guy around. He is the king of doing what is best for himself. Also I agree, agents, hangers on, and the NCAA are scum. Also the athletes should get paid. Football in particular pays for every other athletic program in most schools.

 

[AbeBeta]

Saban is great coach but not the most credible guy around. He is the king of doing what is best for himself. Also I agree, agents, hangers on, and the NCAA are scum. Also the athletes should get paid. Football in particular pays for every other athletic program in most schools.

a college education can cost upwards of 100k for the entire four years. A BA is worth something like a million dollars more income over the life time.

kids are getting paid.

the schools that make money off football are in the minority. you look at all the NCAA programs and the vast majority don't make much on the game.

 

[Apollo Creed]

I blame the player. It's their responsibility to manage his own career and future.

If you wanna risk it all and throw it away talking to an agent, then by all means - but there are plenty of people who have had money, cars, women, etc dangled in front of their face and haven't bit. It's about character.

Sidney Rice is a great example, he came from a very poor family. He was USC's only superstar and agents were constantly trying to communicate with him.

He ended up leaving school early to help support his family, eventually got settled up with Drew Rosenhaus, and will eventually get paiddd.

It's about being patient and doing things the right way. Rice turned down cars, cash in envelopes, and it wasn't like Spurrier is the strictest coach when it comes to things of that nature. It was all Sidney.

 

[Cythim]

100k is a drop in the bucket to what they profit off these kids.

Jersey Sales with the players' number. Video Game sales with full roster of all the players (not by name though). Ticket sales.

Show me these "drop in the bucket" numbers. How much money did the University of Texas make off of McCoy last season? After you crunch those numbers tell me how much McCoy is going to make thanks to UT playing him at QB.

 

[cowboyjoe]

Saban compares NFL agents to pimps
Posted by Mike Florio on July 22, 2010 7:25 AM ET
Former Dolphins coach Nick Saban, who now profits from the free labor of football players (but for the room, board, and tuition that many of them wouldn't want anyway) as the coach of a program he said he wouldn't be coaching, has applied a strong label to agents who give the one thing to players that the college football system, which earns billions from their blood, sweat, and ligaments, won't.

Money.

"I don't think it's anything but greed that's creating it right now on behalf of the agents," Saban said Wednesday. "The agents that do this -- and I hate to say this, but how are they any better than a pimp?

"I have no respect for people who do that to young people. None. How would you feel if they did it to your child?"

Nick, you've lost us on this one. First of all, these kids aren't children. They're old enough to vote for our president, and they're old enough to die while carrying out his missions. So they're old enough to take responsibility for the decision as to whether they should take money under circumstances where they know that they shouldn't.

It's Saban's job to educate them that taking money will destroy their eligibility. Their eligibility to continue to play football for room, board, and tuition that many of them wouldn't want anyway. Their eligibility to continue to help Saban's family, not their own.

So, Nick, who's closer to being the pimp in this situation?

Look, we believe that agents and players should follow the rules, and that the colleges, the NCAA, the NFL, and the NFLPA should step in when they don't. But Saban has no business acting like an innocent bystander in this process.

Greed drives the entire college football system. The schools and the coaches bankroll millions, and the kids pocket peanuts in comparison. At least once agents get involved, the vast majority of the NFL money ends up in the players' pockets.

So, we'll ask it again. Who's closer to the being the pimp in this situation?

 

[InmanRoshi]

Nick "I'll change jobs at the drop of a hat if you offer me more money, to hell with previous commitments and promises" Saban is going to lecture people about greed?

What kind of money are you making off of those kids Saban? 4 million per?

 

[Hostile]

I'll tell you the biggest result if he does that. Kids will sign to play somewhere else. They want NFL exposure. Take it away and they won't play.