University of Alabama coach Nick Saban has made a serious mistake in terminology. During a recent press conference, Saban was asked to respond to NCAA investigations involving one of his players, Marcell Dareus who allegedly attended a party that was sponsored by a sports agent, which would be an NCAA violation.

Saban then referred to sports agents as "pimps," complaining that they are determined to undermine the sanctity of college sports by giving the athletes money or expensive gifts. In light of the fact that Saban felt the need to use such harsh language, I thought I might help him assess what it truly means to be a pimp.

A pimp is someone who does the following:

1) Allows someone else to do the bulk of the work, while keeping most of the money for himself. The only exception might be expenses that allow the worker to keep working.
2) Manipulates the minds of those who live under the weight of the pimp's exploitation, convincing the laborer that the pimp is a supporter when in fact, he is an abuser.
3) Threatens punishment to those who deviate from the system in place.
4) Keeps a list of rules and regulations designed to control the source of labor


Nick Saban earns more than $4 million per year while his players are the ones risking life and limb on the football field. Many of those players never get a college degree or a good education under Saban's watch. Saban, who has made himself wealthy off the labor of athletes while demanding that the athletes themselves not be compensated, is engaging in the very same kind of psychological manipulation that a pimp uses to control his prostitutes.

Most pimps don't identify themselves as malevolent dictators. Instead, they convince the prostitute that they are there to help them. A pimp might say to a prostitute, "Before I came along, you had nothing to eat. Now I'm feeding you because I care about you." The college football coach says, "Without me and the NCAA, you wouldn't have access to an education and would still be stuck in the hood."

Pointing out the nice things you do for a prostitute allows you to continue to exploit him/her on the back-end, similar to how a Chinese sweatshop can explain that the5-year-olds working in the factory are better off by having jobs. The truth is that the kids in the sweatshop simply deserve labor rights.

Many college football coaches, like Saban, are very good at convincing the athletes that coaches are better, more loving pimps than sports agents. Saban and others like him are threatened by those who see the multi-billion dollar value of college athletes and allow the athlete and his family to receive some of the massive wealth that they are generating for coaches and administrators. Saban would rather see all of the money go to himself and leave the athletes' families out in the cold.

Finally, the most important part of "Pimpin 101" is to "keep your pimp hand strong." This means, quite simply, that to maintain control, there must be severe punishment for those who choose to deviate from the rules and regulations you've put in place. A weak pimp can never keep his/her prostitutes in line. The NCAA has a rule book that is thicker than the novel "War and Peace."

Many of these rules, allegedly designed to protect the athletes, are actually an intricate set of plans and policies to ensure that coaches like Saban get rich by keeping athletes and their families in poverty. Any athlete who breaks even the smallest, most irrational rule is dealt a swift and harsh punishment from the NCAA. This is designed to protect the greatest pimpin' hustle on earth, which is the $10.8 billion dollar TV rights deal that the NCAA has with CBS Sports.

So, for all of their talk about the beauty of amateurism, none of those speaking this language are actually practicing what they preach in their own paychecks.

Saban, by vilifying sports agents who are actually willing to pay athletes for their labor, is simply working to keep the athlete from finding a less abusive pimp. In the deep recesses of his mind, Saban likely understands that college athletes should not be controlled like farm animals. Instead, they deserve to have the same labor rights that the rest of us (including Saban) enjoy as Americans. While Saban has lied to recruits and abandoned them for a better gig, none of his athletes have the same right to seek a better job. This is highly unfortunate, incredibly unAmerican and the reason that Saban has never appeared more hypocritical than he looks right now.





Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the Athlete Liberation and Academic Reform Movement (ALARM). To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.