The Business of Football

I have believed for some time that the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. has not been living in the real world (“Welcome to Plantation Football,” by Irvin Muchnick, Aug. 31). The NCAA and its member universities are inhaling money on a second-by-second basis. They are truly making it from the sweat and toil of their student athletes. For the NCAA to refuse to grant these men and women a stipend sufficient for them to survive is inhuman. It is my earnest desire that the Student-Athletes’ Bill of Rights not only passes in California, but in Texas, Illinois, the Southeastern states and every other state where football is huge business.

Michael Heiter

Laguna Hills

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I found Muchnick’s article to be an illustration of misplaced values, unrealistic expectations and arrogant attitudes among student athletes. It isn’t slavery when they allow you to attend Stanford, Berkeley or UCLA. It’s amazing that a student would not understand the real value of an education. The chances of making it in the big show are so remote that the real opportunity is not the quick cash of playing professional football but the promise of attending a nationally recognized university.

David Carlock

Brea