During Thursday night’s episode of The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart devoted the first segment of the show to the recent news surrounding college athletics and unions. However, before he got started on that, Stewart opened the show by congratulating Stephen Colbert on being hired to take over for David Letterman. Stewart played an old clip of Colbert back from Colbert’s time as a correspondent for The Daily Show. The clip showed both funnymen cracking each other up while trying to do a bit.
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After that nice moment, Stewart segued to a discussion of college sports. He started it off by stating UConn had just won national titles in both men’s and women’s college basketball. This was followed by a clip of star player Shabazz Napier being interviewed and stating that he has gone to bed hungry while at UConn, but still made sure to go to practice or play the next day. Stewart then jokingly wondered why Napier just couldn’t ask for money from his wealthy parents to get food.
Stewart then got right to the heart of the matter. While pointing out that the NCAA is nothing more than a ‘charitable organization’, he played a clip showing that their most recent TV contract for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament pays them $10.8 billion. This was followed by another clip revealing that college sports brings in around $11 billion in revenue a year. Stewart joked that this is all just pre-tax, or ‘gross.’ He then corrected himself, as he realized that the NCAA is considered a non-profit so they don’t get taxed on the revenue, so it is ‘nothing but net.’
The Daily Show host then moved into a discussion of unions, as Northwestern University football players were recently able to get the National Labor Relations Board to recognize them as a union and employees of the university. Stewart mockingly derided unions as socialistic and communist, while in sports, players are supposed to put the team ahead of the individual and sacrifice for the greater good. This was followed by an image of Joseph Stalin playing football.
Stewart then took aim at the head of the NCAA, Mark Emmert. A news clip was played stating that Emmert felt that student-athletes should play for the love of the sport. Stewart then responded by saying that obviously the NCAA broadcasts games on television for the pure love of the sport, and not the $10.8 billion contract that they also love.
Emmert was then shown again, this time declaring that education is what should really matter for these student-athletes and that they are students first. Stewart ripped this argument to shreds. He first pointed out that many colleges and universities make a mockery of athletes receiving an education so as to make their teams more competitive. However, even if taking Emmert’s statement at face value, Stewart highlighted how Northwestern football players spend 50-60 hours a week engaging in football-related activities, further cementing their status as employees of the school rather than merely students.
After making fun of the archaic and silly rules forbidding student-athletes from receiving money or food as gifts, Stewart played yet another clip of Emmert. This time, Emmert revealed that unionization would destroy the collegiate mode of athletics as we know it. Stewart finished Emmert’s thought for him, stating ‘if they’re broke, why fix it?’
The segment ended with Stewart absolutely destroying D-1 football and basketball coaches. He pointed out the blatant hypocrisy of these coaches referring to themselves as merely ‘educators’ while pulling in million dollar salaries. Clips were then played stating that football coaches in recent bowl games make an average salary of $2 million a year. Meanwhile, in 40 states, the highest paid public employees are either college basketball or football coaches. This is followed by a montage of coaches abusing their players, all to the tune of ‘One Shining Moment.’
As always, you can tell when Stewart is passionate about a certain topic. This was one of those instances. He obviously feels that college athletes have the absolute right to unionize and that they are currently exploited. The NCAA callously takes advantage of these young adults and essentially forces them into indentured servitude while they reap all of the rewards.
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