Georgia star running back Todd Gurley was suspended by his school earlier this month after a bitter memorabilia dealer snitched on Gurley because he wasn't making enough money off the player's autographs. It was some extremely dumb shit. Now, the NCAA has swooped in and hit Gurley with its own set of punishments, and the extremely dumb shit just got even dumber.
Here's the meaty portion of the NCAA's dumbfuckery:
Todd Gurley, University of Georgia football student-athlete, must sit a total of four games, or 30 percent of the season, for accepting more than $3,000 in cash from multiple individuals for autographed memorabilia and other items over two years. Gurley, who acknowledged violating NCAA rules, must repay a portion of the money received to a charity of his choice and complete 40 hours of community service as additional conditions for his reinstatement. Gurley will be eligible to play on Nov. 15.
Please consider the insanity of the NCAA, which is not a judicial body and does not consider Todd Gurley an employee, punishing a guy by forcing him to part with money he'd literally made off his own name. What are they going to do if he doesn't pay? Book him and throw his $3,000 in an evidence locker?
As we said when Gurley was first suspended by his school, everything you need to know about how spectacularly useless the NCAA and its bylaws are is contained in the fact that this suspension serves the interests of nobody but a memorabilia huckster who snitched on an athlete. Thank God the NCAA is out here getting justice for guys like that.