Fans took umbrage with Joe Biden’s announcement regarding the college football world Wednesday. According to the White House, Biden met with former football stars to discuss topics related to challenges student-athletes face.
Per a report by USA Today, one of the participants, Keith Marshall, explained what the conversation was about. As one should expect from living a few years under Biden’s presidency, the meeting was more fluff for a photo op than a serious conversation:
“Former Georgia running back Keith Marshall told USA TODAY Sports that the session, which also included a number of White House staffers, lasted for more than an hour. And while he said he came into the meeting wondering whether it was a “PR play,” he came away believing the White House “is clearly very interested in being involved in the conversation” about ongoing college sports issues and “how to create a better environment” for college athletes.
“It was just exciting,” added Marshall, who is a co-founder of The Players’ Lounge, a web platform that provides content from current and former college athletes and seeks to provide them with additional opportunities to make money from their name, image and likeness (NIL).”
Fans call out Joe Biden for one critical blunder
The White House released a photo of the meeting and a guest list. The White House’s official statement on the reason for the meeting is suspiciously more benign than what Marshall told USA Today:
“President Biden dropped by a meeting with former college football players and advocates to hear about some of the challenges college football players and other college athletes face. The former college football players and advocates shared some of their own experiences as well as some ideas and initiatives for addressing these challenges.”
No mention of NIL money and player safety?
The former football players were Andrew Luck, Rod Gilmore, Keith Marshall, Jordan Meachum, Kevin Negandhi, Desmond Howard, Ryan Clark, Lael Brainard, and Stephen Benjamin.
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Readers should notice a trend in that list. Not one named is a current college athlete.
Fans took to social media to call out Biden for not meeting with actual student-athletes. Here are the best takes on X of Biden’s announcement for college football.
Not like they have any interest in this other than their cut of the cash.
— NOSMH (@nosmh) November 8, 2023
How is this fair? Seems you’re missing some diversity here.
— Southern FFA Family (@FFAFamily) November 8, 2023
Biden can do so much better than speaking with Desmond.
— Erik Burkhart (@HuskerInsanity) November 8, 2023
This reeks of the MLB steroid hearings where politicians spent tax dollars just to meet famous people for autographs and insert themselves into a group of famous people.
— John Plymire (@Plymire98) November 8, 2023
Not a single current athlete.
Not a single female athlete.
Not a single person representing a labor organization.
Other than that, awesome panel. https://t.co/cxJE2KHtRx
— Mo Egger (@MoEgger) November 8, 2023
Not a single female athlete?
— Sean Wiese (@dswiese) November 9, 2023
Why is everyone from ESPN?
— ViennaJeff60 (@Viennajeff60) November 8, 2023
A really disappointing list. Whoever put this group together did not put much thought into it.
— RR (@ThaRichieRich) November 8, 2023
Did you not get an invite? Espn needed more representation.
— Kramer (@Remark_dkramer) November 8, 2023
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