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Auburn Football Players Tell HBO They Got Paid To Play: Oh, The Horror!

Mar 30, 2011, 6:49 PM UTC

Wednesday night on HBO, Real Sports will air a report on scandal in college sports, and among the highlights will be four ex-Auburn football players, all of whom say the same thing: They were paid to play.

You can read more about all this at Sports By Brooks, a site that’s been pathologically obsessed with the Cam Newton scandal all year long. And for someone like that, this news is miraculous. Because of course, now the Newton scandal finally has a smoking gun. A big ole’ “TOLD YA SO” for all the people who yelled “THEY’RE DIRTY” back when Auburn celebrated in January.

Now sites like Sports By Brooks are already asking whether the HBO revelations could prompt retroactive penalities from the NCAA. And maybe they can. Here’s an excerpt from the interviews:

Kremer voiceover: “McClover says what he asked for was money. A lot of it. And that he got it. Delivered in a bookbag, exact amount unknown.”
Kremer to McClover: “You opened it up, what are you thinking?”
McClover: “I almost passed out. I literally almost passed out I couldn’t believe it was true. I felt like I owed them.”
Kremer to McClover: “You felt obligated to them (Auburn)?”
McClover: “I felt totally obligated.”
Kremer to McClover: “Because of the money?”
McClover: “Yeah.”

But just so we’re clear... That is AWESOME. Like, if Auburn keeps systematically making a mockery of the NCAA’s horrible system, then WAR DAMN EAGLE. There’s no doubt that HBO will try to paint this as some cruel exploitation of 18 year-old kids, but if their program really does have a system for paying players, Auburn should be applauded, not attacked.

The Auburn player above may say he felt “obligated” after receiving the money, but how do you think ALL college athletes feel? As soon as they sign a letter of intent, there’s an obligation for every last one of them. A scholarship has to be renewed every single year, and if you think coaches don’t exploit that vulnerability to push their players, you’re Nantz-level naive.

In fact, the more money your sport generates for the school, the more pressure coaches have to squeeze the most out of scholarships, giving them leverage over the players. Money or no money, the obligation’s there regardless. So with all that added pressure and commitment, shouldn’t we be happy that some of these players are getting paid? Isn’t that better than pressuring them with a free education and the promise of a Communications degree?

Or think of it another way. Would you rather have college kids taken care of by an organized booster system, or by skeezy agents, looking to gain leverage over 20 year-old kids, and then parlay that into gaining control over their professional future?

There’s so many holes in the NCAA’s insane system, it’s a waste of time to belabor these points. We’ve been here before. First with Reggie Bush, then with Cam Newton, then with Ohio State.

But today, while everyone braces for the bombshells sure to be lobbed in Auburn’s direction tonight, don’t let the somber voiceovers fool you. College players getting paid isn’t wrong; it’s inevitable. And while pathetic reporters won’t quit till we expose the “cheaters” compensating college athletes, it seems like Auburn’s only crime was being too organized about it.

On another note... If you’d like to see the real scandal worth paying attention to, here’s a snapshot of PBS’ report on the money behind March Madness from Tuesday night. Again, all of this is redundant by now, so there definitely something hilarious about hearing PBS talk about Michael Lewis, saying, “While working on his book, The Blind Side, Lewis found that the NCAA wasn’t treating its athletes fairly.”

Nevertheless, especially at a time when everyone’s watching, it’s pretty great to see the NCAA take such a well-deserved PR beating. And jokes aside, PBS did a kickass good job with this: