S tudent government has declared today to be Athlete Appreciation Day. We, too, would like to voice our support for student-athletes. They should feel assured that members of this community want the best for them.
But rather than rounding up a familiar horde of students in Carolina Blue T-shirts, we believe a true show of appreciation for student-athetes’ position would involve vocal efforts to address the problems of the current NCAA framework and UNC’s hesitancy to take bold action on athletes’ behalves.
This can only occur if we reject narratives that equate criticism of an athletic industry run amok to criticism of athletes themselves.
Let’s remember that these remarkable people who manage to perform at the highest levels of their sport while managing an academic career do so against the odds set by the collegiate model.
Casting student-athletes as superhumans, able to memorize nucleic acids and tackle running backs in a single bound, obscures the reality that most student-athletes are not superhuman — nor should they be expected to be.
They struggle to find a balance between school, life and work (and yes, their sport is work) just as the rest of us do.
Those who succeed academically and athletically deserve praise, but their success should not be held up as proof that the calls to address persistent structural problems are unfounded.
