Fitzgerald, R.(2013).NCAA players to be paid. Jstor Newspaper Article.13, 1-5. 

    Ryan Fritzgerald, author of “NCAA Players to Be Paid”,begins by mentioning the amateurism issue NCAA football teams are specifically facing. He subsequently ponders the question if players should actually get paid for their contributions to their respective organizations, although they’re still just amateurs. He opens his response by revealing that the NCAA garners an estimated ten billion dollars annually, all which players never get to see the light of. Instead, it’s the owners and executives who get to enjoy the fruits of their players’ labor which he finds extremely deplorable. In response to his findings he begins to realize the reality of the situation and wishes the NCAA would slowly die out as a result of their actions. Although now a supporter of NCAA players getting paid he wasn’t always on board with the idea, his perspective only began to change after he realized others were blatantly capitalizing off players’ talents. The author concludes by saying he doesn’t see players getting paid soon because of all the paperwork and rule changes necessary to do so but keeps good faith in compensation some point down the line. 

        The author, Ryan Fritzgerald, is writing to NCAA fans, people who are in support of players getting paid and maybe others that are completely undecided about it. Fritzgerald’s tone, especially in the beginning is extremely contemptuous when he personally insults the President of NCAA operations by saying that he’s “busy fattening his own pockets and making an annual salary of 1.7 million dollars. If there was no amateurism rule Emmert’s salary wouldn’t be that high so for him to sleep with a smile on his face every night in his cushy bed he’d prefer to keep the amateurism rule as long as he can”(Fritzgerald 1). He clearly feels animosity and frustrations towards Emmert’s actions and doesn’t hide it in his speech. Throughout the article he urges people to recognize the blatant injustice being done but sort of digresses towards the end. He changes his tone from fiery to a more realistic one once he recognizes what he wants is only wishful and is rather unlikely but remains hopeful that it may happen in the near future,” I don’t see college athletes being paid anytime soon because the paperwork, rules, regulations would have to be re-written and that massive 400 page rule book would turn into a gigantic 800 page book”. In terms of purpose he wants the audience to recognize that schools are indeed taking advantage of star athletes and people should be upset about it. He proposes that there should be a change to benefit students by letting them get paid while they’re in college which completely ties into his stance as he is in support of college athletes being compensated. Fitzgerald’s work is regarded as a credible source because not only is it written as a newspaper article and only cites NCAA sources/regulations to further his points but is published on a academically trusted website (Jstor).  Â