Slate's Utterly Confusing Hit Piece on College Football and Joey Bosa

Slate's editors got bored and wrote up an odd clickbaity Joey Bosa piece about how Bosa's self-isolation after his suspension showed "everything that's wrong with college football."

Read the Bosa piece here. Of all the stories that can show what's wrong with the NCAA and it's overall approach to the football and basketball programs/players it oversees, this was definitely not the one to show everything that's wrong with CFB.

Bosa was suspended for something trending towards marijuana and academic issues. He took the suspension quite seriously, according to this interesting write-up, and kept his head down so as not to jeopardize the monster contract he's going to probably sign in 2016. He moved into a sparse apartment and avoided the celebrity-induced crush that envelopes star Buckeyes in Columbus. His re-dedication was rewarded by another big season for Ohio State. I read this piece as an individual who understood the possible risks of continuing certain behaviors, understood his earning potential, and played the situation correctly.

Where is the horror here? The main issue from Slate's editorialist is that Bosa isn't getting paid like a celebrity, but essentially is a celebrity...and that Bosa had to live sparsely at some point even though his market-value is huuuuge. An individual who grew up with a great support system and was given a very good platform to show off his tremendous skills and parlay that opportunity into millions...is the victim here.

As confused commentators pointed out in the quite lucid comment section, Bosa isn't the individual you should be pointing out when criticizing the NCAA. Joey Bosa grew up with a good family in Florida and chose to play football at OSU. When his transgression, however minimal, threatened to damage his future dream to be in the NFL and profit mightily, he put his head down and worked hard. Bosa wants a career, like many of us, and the written and unwritten rules say that not having numerous run-ins with the law or character issues will help him accomplish that career goal. This isn't rocket science and Bosa understood the aforementioned concept.

I think the main issue here comes down to "choice". Right now, Slate views college football as "indentured servitude" and believes these players are suffering at the hands of their well-paid oppressors (AD's, coaches, universities, Nike, etc). Wherever you fall on that spectrum, Joey Bosa's year of solitude isn't a good example. Slate is simply pulling at straws to show that CFB is broken. They would have done well to discuss the practice of pulling scholarships or worthless degrees to show how the system can be bettered.