Kain Colter, quarterback from Northwestern University, is proving himself to be a leader by talking to the labor union about having them represent college football players.

The union requirements state that to be represented by the union you have to be employed; the college players believe that they are employed by the universities. They believe that because they receive athletic scholarships that include housing, food and travel expenses, this is a form of payment from the universities and because of that they are employees of the universities.

The NCAA says that the athletes are not employed because they are students and they only receive assistance to get their college degrees by scholarship. The players are not seeking any further payments; they just want better medical protection and treatment. This has never been attempted before in the history of college sports. If the players were able to make this actually happen, it would not only affect Northwestern players, but all college football players in the country, and potentially could cover other student athletes as well.

Players have a right to make this attempt, and I applaud Northwestern’s head football coach, Pat Fitzgerald, for backing his players in their decision. This would help protect student athletes if they are injured during their college years, and would provide more assistance financially with their medical care for these injuries. If student athletes are allowed to be represented by the labor union this could help ULM players by giving them peace of mind, knowing that if they get hurt that they would get assistance in paying for the medical care they would need for however long they needed that care.

If the NCAA doesn’t believe that the players are employees, they need to explain why are they getting scholarships and essentially are being paid to play a sport that make millions of dollars for that university.

Scholarships are a form of money, therefore I agree that this could be considered a form of payment to the players as employees of the school. I do believe that the school should be responsible for their medical treatment, and if they have an injury that needs further treatment years later, the school should be held to some responsibility for this. At this point the NCAA does not allow this.

I would hope that even if this attempt at union organization is unsuccessful, that maybe it will give some attention to this issue and possibly there will be another solution found for this common problem.