Nerlens Noel’s season-ending injury and Jadeveon Clowney’s playing status have the internet going crazy. Reactions were instant and from multiple points of view. People who adamantly disagreed with the idea of Clowney sitting out next year, all of a sudden changed their tune a bit once Noel suffered his injury. And those who agreed with the thought of Clowney taking the year off, have more ammunition.
The sight of Noel’s injury is rather gruesome, and really makes you wonder why the NBA conspires with the NCAA to force these players to attend one year of college. It also gives clear reasoning as to why so many people want to see Clowney secure his career by not playing this year.
But coaches like Steve Spurrier will always insist their star players play no matter what.
“If money was his only goal in life, then he couldn’t play,” Spurrier told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “And he might not get into a car before next year’s draft, so he wouldn’t be in a car wreck and get injured. He would be just very, very careful for a year not to have any kind of injury.
“But Jadeveon likes football. Football players play football. They don’t wait around on this, that or the other. He’s really good about avoiding injuries, and so forth. He knows how to get out of harm’s way if there’s a big pileup around a tackle. I think the odds of him getting hurt are not nearly as much as a running back or somebody like that.”
Oddly enough, I don’t feel as bad for Noel, as I would if the injury happened to Clowney. Why? Noel had the option to pull a Brandon Jennings and go straight to Europe if he wanted to get paid. The NBA and NCAA make too much money off their one-and-done rule, giving them no reason to eliminate it. Therefore, more top prospects should highly consider that option.
Unfortunately, for football players like Clowney, and his teammate Marcus Lattimore who has faced two season-ending injuries, they’re stuck playing for three years. I know somebody is going to bring up the insurance policies players are able to take out. Darren Rovell reported, today, that Nerlens has a 10 million dollar policy.
Alex Marvez from Fox Sports also reported that Clowney has one for $5 million. These are fine, but it isn’t enough since the policies only cover career-ending injuries. If a player gets injured, and his draft stock drops but he's deemed as still being able to play, he gets nothing.
This is insanely unfair and needs to change. President Obama has already called out how college players suffer a lot of the same injuries as the pros with no coverage. The NCAA makes way too much money off these young men to not compensate and protect them better than they do. Everybody has their hands out, and wins, except for the kids.
