Why is it that every time a big game comes along or when we get to the NCAA tournament in March we have to listen to the “poor Kenny Simontons” of the sports world? Writers like Rick Morrissey (Tribune, Jan. 1) make it sound like school higher-ups take this bowl money and put it in their 401k accounts.
Poor Kenny seems to forget that the football team is not the only sports program on campus. Most of this money, I’m sure, is used to support the rest of the sports programs at each school. Besides, if Simonton gets $630 a month, as Morrissey stated in his column, how much pizza and clothes does he want?
As of this May, I will have put four children through college. None of them can throw a football or shoot a three-pointer, but they know about hard work and how to study. They all received some grants to help with tuition, but nobody received a “full ride” like poor Simonton, and they certainly did not get $630 in spending money.
Next time write about the “Rudy”-types who want to go to school to learn and get themselves ready for life, not the Simontons who are looking for a way out.
