The Stanwestern Wolvercats and the Commodification of Wrestlers

THE STANWESTERN WOLVERCATS

Needless to say, anything that makes Northwestern wrestling fans cry is a big plus for me, but the creation of the Stanwestern Wolvercats maybe goes too far. You've probably heard by now that Michigan has taken three wrestlers from Evanston's Big Ten Team and added them to their new Wolvercats lineup. 

Additionally, the Wolvercats added a wrestler from Stanford, which is basically a West coast version of Northwestern, but for hippies. What Shane Griffith has done is a Joe Montana, going from sunny California to a dank Midwestern city that is home to the most overrated football coaches in history (Schembechler and that current fellow). 

To lure Griffith from the land of long hair and LSD parties, the Wolvercats may have paid more for him than San Francisco originally paid for Joe Montana:

"Joe Montana signed a 3 year, $255,000 contract with the San Francisco 49ers, including a $50,000 signing bonus, and an average annual salary of $85,000."

Is $85k the going rate? I don't know, that's a guess on my part. Including the outrageous cost for what folks in Ann Arbor euphemistically call "an education"--while boldly looking you straight in the face and without the hint of a smile--it may actually be more. Is this going to be worse than free agency in professional sports?

FREE AGENCY IN THE PROS

In college, there used to be a device called the National Letter of Intent, which a high schooler signed to join a university's athletic program. It was binding. It was basically a contract. Now, it may as well be called a "National Letter of Perhaps, or Perhaps Not."  

In the 1980s, professional sports saw the development of free agency. This was an end to the "reserve clause" in pro contracts which allowed owners to keep players for as long as they wanted. After the rise of free agency, a player could negotiate with other teams after his contract expired and not be bound to the one team with which he had originally signed. 

So, it appears that at the present time, even professional sports teams are more stable than college teams because of that initial contract. 

Today, in college wrestling, in football and in basketball, athlete movement can be as volatile as a swinger's party in Palo Alto before Aids. 

Take the case of Aaron Nagao. 

He was wrestling last year for Minnesota but then transferred to Penn State for this season. My theory is that he jumped ship because of my nickname for him, "The Gopher Choker." It was too damn good. He fled that nickname, knowing that "The Penn State Strangler" was basically a rip off of Nick Simmons and probably wouldn't catch on. 

As you can see, Nick Simmons seized that nickname and won't let go. Nagao, instead of embracing his new moniker, transferred to a new school to avoid it!

That's right. He transferred schools to avoid a nickname. 

A MODEST PROPOSAL

Some folks believe that the pendulum has swung too far. Other folks don't know what a pendulum is. I suggest to the former this reasonable solution: Give wrestling coaches the authority to trade athletes to other teams for other wrestlers, cash and/or a practice room partner to be named later. 

With this authority, a coach could see that one of his wrestlers had entered the transfer portal, and, before that wrestler could come to terms with another team, he could be traded to a third team. 

Problem solved! 

It is either that or wrestlers can decide to choose a school with an incredible staff of PATRIOTIC AMERICANS who will value them as human beings and not as a commodity, who will mentor them, and who will work with them to become overall better citizens of this the greatest country on Earth, the UNITED STATES of AMERICA. 

Kind of like the ILLINOIS staff. 

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CODA

I literally cannot recall whether I did this photoshop art for the three-time California state champion Nevills or the four-time Cali state champion Nevills. Or, was it the pure-blood wizard from Hogwarts?