Just the other day, I was watching ESPN when a sports news story came on about one of the most prominent NCAA football coaches in NCAA history, Nick Saban, who had accused another high-profile coach, Jimbo Fisher, of “buying every player” of his highly regarded 2022 recruiting class. Saban was upset because he feels his power to recruit the best and win regularly is slipping. Fisher denied the claims with some fire and brimstone of his own. Seeing these two Caucasian men argue about whether their players (most of whom are African American) are paid for their services, left an odd taste. The fact that they are arguing in the public square about their fight for power on the backs of their “stock” is interesting.

Not done, Saban also alleged that Deion Sanders (a high-profile NCAA African American head coach) paid a player $1 million to acquire him. He made this comment because a No. 1 recruit, Travis Hunter Jr., decided to sign with Coach Sanders at an HBCU. To Saban, it was incomprehensible that a No. 1 recruit like Hunter (who happens to be African American), could sign with an HBCU over other “traditional” powerhouses. Coach Sanders’ response: “We as a people don’t have to pay our people to play with our people.” Saban has since apologized for his comments while Hunter responded, “I got a mil? But my mom still stay (sic) in a three-bedroom house with five kids.”

When watching this play out in real time, it made me think about how these young college athletes are treated as cattle to many. The fact that Saban is questioning why a top “buck” recruit wouldn’t just flock to him, have the audacity to choose an HBCU, argue about not compensating them for their services and worry about losing power should cause many to reflect. This seems like an old American story.

Now, I shouldn’t have to bring up the similarity of this issue to America’s original sin in slavery. This is a sin we all should know the history of. But in many ways, this didn’t just end on Juneteenth, it simply evolved to something that’s more palatable. When people are living just to work check to check in an economy built for the richest of us, it’s a form. When our children are taught that higher education is the key to riches and wealth but price it out of reach for the least of us, it’s a form. When a coach (Saban) who makes $9.5 million annually can argue in a public square about pay and who has the right to recruit the best “bucks” who should be paid nothing, it’s a form. People and/or “bucks” who are at the bottom are only valued by how successful and rich they make the top.

The NCAA is an absolutely perfect example. For years, players in every sport have been fighting for compensation for use of their talents and even their likenesses. The reason that Blacks were “valued” in an NCAA sport like basketball, was the fateful 1966 Texas Western vs. Kentucky game. This game has been referred to by then-player, now president of the Miami Heat Pat Riley, as “the emancipation proclamation of 1966.” In it, for the first time, five Black players started and beat an all-White Kentucky team. Due to this, teams across the country saw the “value” in these Black players. NCAA teams across the country began to integrate. Not because it was the right thing to do, but because it was the most profitable.

Sweat became the new cotton. And this is a tale as old as 1776.