John Locke ““ the French theorist, not the bald dude from “Lost” ““ famously philosophized that when a governing authority oversteps its bounds, it is the right and duty of the subjects to revolt.
His words were invoked by revolutionaries in North America and Europe at the end of the 18th century.
Ladies and gentlemen, today, the roles of Samuel Adams and Thomas Jefferson will be played by former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon.
O’Bannon, a starring member of the Bruins’ 1995 championship team, has recently emerged as the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the big, bad NCAA in an event that is far too long in coming.
O’Bannon accused the NCAA of depriving its former athletes, particularly those involved in football and men’s basketball, of any means of profit generated by sales of video games, DVDs, apparel and other merchandise.
O’Bannon has the chance to be an incomparable pioneer in the world of collegiate athletics.
“I’m in because I have an opportunity to open a door for a whole lot of student athletes ““ former, present and future,” he said to Yahoo Sports.
O’Bannon isn’t the only former Bruin leading the fight against the NCAA. Former UCLA linebacker Ramogi Huma is now the executive director of the National College Players Association, an advocacy group that fights the NCAA on the rights of former players.
It was only a matter of time before someone stepped up to challenge the NCAA.
I find it absurd to think that these players don’t deserve a share of the enormous amount of money they generate for their schools and for the NCAA. Who’s with me on boycotting NCAA jersey sales? I fork over 50 bucks for a UCLA No. 2 basketball jersey because I support Darren Collison, not because I think NCAA President Myles Brand deserves a new hairpiece.
Don’t think that I’m endorsing collegiate athletes getting paid by their institutions, otherwise I’d be writing for the wrong L.A. university newspaper.
Rather, these athletes deserve relative compensation for the number of merchandise sales that they bring in. Think Jrue Holiday might think twice about jumping to the Association if he were getting some compensation for all the No. 21 jersey sales while he was a Bruin?
Video game manufacturer EA Sports unfortunately finds itself in the middle of the conflict. For years, EA has produced a series of successful titles in college football and basketball.
The one catch in these games is that the NCAA forbids the use of player identities ““ the use of which would force EA to have contracts with each of the players. In games featuring professional sports, EA negotiates with the sport’s players union.
So technically, that force in the middle of the Bruins’ defensive line in the brand-new NCAA Football 2010 is a random individual named DT #92, not senior Brian Price. I know that many sports perfectionists solve this problem manually, going through the tedious process of entering in each player’s name themselves. I curse the NCAA for each minute I waste entering in player names instead of playing the game.
I was in class with a member of the Bruin basketball team who asked me if he could borrow a pen. I obliged, but I’m worried now that I may have committed an NCAA violation by providing athletes with free writing utensils.
Good for guys like O’Bannon and Huma, who are finally taking a stand on behalf of a vast number of athletes. Perhaps the revolution has indeed finally begun. And when the next shipment of NCAA merchandise comes in, I know there will be at least three of us ready to dump it into Boston Harbor.
If you plan to 8-clap in the courthouse in support of O’Bannon, Huma, et al, e-mail Eshoff at reshoff@media.ucla.edu