So much about big-time college sports is criticized. But the worst scandal is almost never mentioned: the academic fraud wherein the student-athletes, so-called, are admitted without even remotely adequate credentials and then aren't educated so much as they are just kept eligible.
Interpretation
The quote critiques the flawed system in big-time college sports where student-athletes are often admitted without proper qualifications and their education is neglected.
Frank Deford highlights a significant yet overlooked issue in big-time college sports, namely the academic fraud that occurs by admitting student-athletes who lack the requisite academic credentials. Instead of receiving a genuine education, these individuals are merely kept eligible to play, compromising both their academic integrity and the educational standards of the institutions. This critique sheds light on the broader implications of prioritizing sports over education.
In practice
In a speech addressing the need for reforms in college athletics, one might say, 'As Frank Deford pointed out, we must confront the academic fraud surrounding student-athletes.'
I think there are more good sportswriters doing more good sportswriting than ever before. But I also believe that the one thing that's largely gone out is what made sport such fertile literary territory - the characters, the tales, the humor, the pain, what Hollywood calls 'the arc.'
Sport is an art: it has incredible appeal everywhere on this earth, and it fills so many human hearts with passion that it's impossible to dismiss.
There's a great power of imagination about these little creatures, and a creative fancy and belief that is very curious to watch . . . I am sure that horrid matter-of-fact child-rearers . . . do away with the child's most beautiful privilege. I am determined that Anny shall have a very extensive and instructive store of learning in Tom Thumbs, Jack-the-Giant-Killers, etc.
My education was neglected, yet I was passionately fond of reading.
We do not believe in the educative power of words and commands alone, but seek cautiously, and almost without the child's knowing it, to guide his natural activity.
Children love this idea that their brain is like a muscle that gets stronger as they use it.
Easy reading is damn hard writing.
A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people.
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