The Job Is Football: The Myth of the Student-Athlete

Posted August 16, 2016

External Article: The American Historian

Johnny Smith, assistant professor in the School of History and Sociology, wrote “The Job Is Football: The Myth of the Student-Athlete” for The American Historian.

Excerpt:

He was a student of history, but most people knew him as the star quarterback of the football team.

In the summer of 2013 Kain Colter, the twenty-one year old starting quarterback at Northwestern University, enrolled in a course that examined the social and political history of labor in America since the nineteenth century. His instructor, Nick Dorzweiler, challenged the students to reflect on how the meaning of labor has changed over time and what work means to them as citizens. After visiting a Chicago steel mill, Kain began considering the role of unions in professional sports and wondered why college athletes did not have one, too.

For the full article, read here.