LSU Black Male Athletes were Told to Stand Down on Protesting Alton Sterling’ death.   All LSU athletes specifically were informed not to consider protesting the Alton Sterling Case.  (B.S. This is being directed to African American male athletes i.e., Football and Basketball. Alton Sterling is the Black male that was killed by the police in Lousiana.  This tragic shooting as like all shows a Black male wrestling with cops.  Ultimately, most if not all, are killed by the gun.  (In the New York case, strangulation).  The almost always walk…Yes, I shot your Black Ass!!!  Well, at least officers practiced diversity.  Black Athletes again verbally and non-verbally told to shut the hell up.  We only need you on Saturdays.  College football’ second-class citizen, African American Male athletes.  We’re again placed in their underclass.  The LSU football program informed football athletes, say something, or you’re done.  (Unless you’re the top athlete) Yes, done, what should an 18-year-old do believing the coach does things for his benefit.  Well, this action taken is doing anything for the football student.  They’ve been forced to stand down because they obey their college masters.  This may sound irrational but college football coaches don’t give a damn about Black male athletes.

This demand wasn’t to protect the athletes but the institutions and coaches waiting for their big payday.  College sports has always operated like a slave ship.  Athletes are told when and what to do.   African American athletes, more than any athletes, are pressured never to open their mouth.  It’s as if we don’t know they lack an education, yet, the male football coaches and schools, get that payday.  Schools make all the money and ever cents go to their money sack.  The biggest lie ever told athletes were not employees.  The entire system of big-time football is sending athletes and coaches to the next level.  Yet, between the coaches wishing to call plays at an NFL stadium.  The athletes are directly his meal ticket…he knows without that Black body; the coach’s career is doomed.  Yet, we care about the touchdown, the Black athletes remain at the bottom of the well.  He has no other purpose but makes people laugh or frown at his performance.  But, he’s still another brother, wishing on that lottery ticket.

The National College Athletic Association (NCAA) college male sports teams, specifically basketball and football, requires a young black male talent for continued success and profit.  In urban neighborhoods like Detroit, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., the NCAA athletic corporation wager on Black male athleticism to rake in large revenue for its shareholders (e.g., NCAA administrators and college coaches).  This institution bets on young this talent to pay off big in sporting contests.  For example, the BCS Championship series and The Final Four are multi-million dollar events equally matched only by the Super Bowl and World Cup as Goliath entertainment spectacles.  Both events are over-represented with males of color, mostly from poor urban backgrounds.  The NCAA and professional sport is big business, thus betting on Black male talent is normal and accepted.

NCAA athletics is a money-making machine and need black males to replenish its stable annually.  Americans love the sport and they love to wager on sporting contests, specifically, football and basketball.  Each year billions of dollars are wagered on sporting events.  The Final Four and The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) rake in enormous revenue at betting parlors and merchandising.  It is an epidemic, it not uncommon for labor production to diminish during the NCAA 10-day tournament.  As citizens, we’re glued to the television watching mostly these overrepresented Black males rake in millions for its bettors.  In fact, the NCAA sports entertainment complex has grown exponentially in the last four decades.  For example, the Men’s Final Four is one of the largest viewed television programmings in our society.  Millions watch large saturation of African American male talent perform for its citizenry.  However, central to this viewership is the wagering, not just in the contest, but on the Black male talent.  Sports wagering began long ago during slavery.

Laying money on the ponies in the antebellum slavery era was considered a pastime for slave masters and wealthy titans.  Black male slaves rode as jockeys for their masters, while men of power wagered on their skills to direct a horse.  At the same time, White men of simple belongings did not find value in this employment.  That soon changed, these men realizing Black jockeys in the ‘monkey seat’ were bigger than he should be in the industry.  Thus, White supremacy sought to correct the social order and place the negro back in his place.  Thus, Whites gain control of the horse racing jockey industry and maintain the betting system today.  This nation’s first major athletic event illustrates the fascination of wagering on sporting events and the men who compete.  Although White supremacy proponents drove Black men from the ‘monkey seat’ the door was open for gambling on sporting events and its competitors for all sports.

Some belief and rightly so, the NCAA sports entertainment complex gamble with Black male’s lives.  In other words, its sole purpose is to recruit and wager on Black male athleticism, for some education is but a by-product.  Like the theory of buying a lottery ticket, the odds of winning are astronomical, yet, many play it religiously.  In my study, I will use a gambling model to illustrate how these males become illusory athletic ‘Blue Chips’ as a process of the Human Lottery Syndrome.  The Human Lottery Syndrome describes the process of socializing black males into athletic gambling chips.  Factors associated with this composite center around the institutions and adults who parlay these males at ‘athleticism’ betting parlors.  In other words, major institutions (i.e., NCAA, High School, youth sports) and adults (i.e., H.S. / Youth Coaches, Parents) deliberately or inexplicably gamble with these males’ personal, social, and academic lives.  More is lost than just an ACL or a pro career when Black males lose.

Robert Williams