Checks to the star to replace school glory in Florida sports

If any vestige remains in Florida of the days when high school athletes got no more reward from stardom in the game than classroom adulation and a letter on a sweater, you can kiss those memories goodbye next month.

On June 4, the Florida High School Athletic Association is scheduled to vote on rule changes that would allow high school athletes to profit in business deals from their name, image and likeness. The rules even encourage them to hire business agents.

It’s a darn shame, but most likely inevitable. Similar rules have been sweeping across other states, turning amateurism into professionalism and further separating student sports stars from their unheralded and unpaid classmates.

In some states the rule changes to allow kids to profit from sports reach every level, from kindergarten through twelfth grade. In Florida colleges and universities, professionalism started almost three years ago.

What once was winning the game for dear old Hudson High or Lincoln Elementary or wherever will soon be winning the game for the dear old bank account. In fact, under the proposed Florida rules student athletes wouldn’t be allowed to use the school’s mascot, logo, or uniform when promoting businesses or products without special permission. 

I haven’t seen impartial studies of what the professionalism of college athletics has done for or to the non-sports careers of graduates or their development as healthy, happy, well-rounded human beings – or, in fact, to their incomes later in life. Those studies may have to wait a decade or more to be revealing.  

It’s fine for kids to earn money while they’re in school. Developing a good work ethic and understanding of the business environment at all levels is a valuable part of education. So the state changes to be voted on June 4 that seek to promote financial education for athletes can be healthy.

“By providing student-athletes with knowledge about potential legal and financial drawbacks associated with [name, image and likeness sale] activities, high schools can contribute to the overall welfare of their student athletes,” the Florida proposal says.

That’s true – but we would think legal and financial education in our schools should be equally available and applicable to all students, not just the chosen few sports stars. Every student needs that knowledge. 

Separation of athletes from their classmates can’t be healthy for either group, or for society. The proposal up for a vote doesn’t say how the high school financial education would be provided or whether school districts would be responsible for doing so. It certainly doesn’t mention any financial education for non-athletes.

Nations like Russia and China have for decades treated “amateur” athletes as a separate and privileged class. It doesn’t seem healthy for society or human development to do that among teens in a democracy.

It’s true that high school sports stars have long taken an early step up the ladder. The star halfback of our school was hired by a clothing store as a part-time salesman because he could attract a following of male sports fans as customers. Our star mathematician got no such offers. 

But it’s a pretty long stride from favoritism in hiring for an after-school job by a sports-crazy clothing store owner to receiving paid endorsements from national brands, which some high schoolers in other states already have. At least the clothing store clerk learned to earn his pay on the job. 

There is little learning experience gained in cashing endorsement checks.