Former Cornell University cornerback Brandon Kerns discussed his opposition to the National Labor Relation's board voting in favor of Northwestern college football players forming a union and the unionization of college athletes in general Monday on Fox Business Network's Cavuto.
Kerns argued unions won't help athletes make money off things like their signatures, alluding to the autographing saga that got Heisman winner Johnny Manziel in trouble last year. While he supported reforms within the NCAA regarding athlete pay, he said unions aren't the way to go and that they threatened the integrity of college sports.
"That's another reform that should be made within the NCAA," he said. "I think that is completely different from unionization, which I think leads to long-term negative ramifications such as strained team dynamics. Are you going to be able to fire an athlete? What if an athlete goes on strike against a public school that currently isn't going to be within this legislation of unionization? It just doesn't make any sense. I also fear for the other sports at schools outside of football and basketball that are the big money makers. What happens to field hockey, lacrosse and the like? I think it hurts the integrity of college sports as a whole."
Northwestern University has asked the NLRB to overturn the decision by its regional director.
The Washington Free Beacon featured Kerns and his opposition to the movement April 6:
Kerns was just the type of player that the College Athletes Players Association, a fledgling labor organization sponsored by the United Steelworkers union, says it wants to help. But the NLRB decision that branded student-athletes as employees capable of union membership doesn’t apply to Kerns, who played football at Cornell University from 2004 to 2007. The Ivy League doesn’t give out athletic scholarships, which the NLRB says is necessary to form employer-employee relationships. Even if it did, he was enrolled at Cornell’s Agriculture School, a New York statutory school subsidized by state government. Only players at private colleges can form a union under the NLRB’s logic.
Kerns is no fan of the status quo in Big College Football. The NCAA’s ban on athletes earning money for their performance on the field doesn’t sit well with Kerns, who is now an MBA student at the Stanford School of Business, especially because the time commitment to the program precludes athletes from taking side-jobs or earning the marks needed for elite careers.
"Student athletes, similar to non-student athletes, should have the ability to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors, including the commercialization of their brand," he said. "If there is value to an athlete’s signature, I do not believe the NCAA should prevent the athlete from selling autographed merchandise."
Despite his numerous complaints about the treatment of student athletes, Kerns remains "strongly against having unions with college athletics."