Tim’s Surprising Support for Donald De La Haye

So if you’ve missed this summers edition of “Student Athlete” vs “Stupid NCAA Rules” I’ll catch you up, after all it’s going on in Danny Whites Athletic Department.

So a UCF Kicker, Donald De La Haye, puts up some very funny youtube videos. They are pretty funny and he draws the kind of views most humble college bloggers could only dream about.

Here’s an example

They all focus on what it’s like to be a college athlete and with a quarter million views per video he was pulling in a little bit of money... Once again the kind that humble college bloggers could only dream about.... sigh..

Now when these things usually come up I am the guy who breaks out the “amateurism” flag and charges the social media hill. Because as much as I know it’s not perfect, as hard as it is to maintain, college sports is only worth having if it’s amature.

But this is different.

First De La Haye is a marketing major. Assuming he’s not kicking extra points on Sundays when college is done then this is something very nice for his portfolio and valuable experience. You could very well compare this to a Computer Engineering student doing some coding for cash while he’s a student.

But, let’s assume, for the moment that he was not educationally linked to this kind of stuff... So what.

The NCAA’s case is that this is an athlete profiting off of his status as an athlete... To which I say meh....

He’s not playing football for money, he’s not in uniform, he’s making funny youtube videos about his life.

So to paraphrase Sargent Hulka “Lighten up NCAA”