TOW #26: "Team Spirit", Adam Gopnik

Goals:

Good transition sentences

Strong analysis

Strong topic sentences

A major issue currently being debated is whether or not college athletes should be paid. Rather than taking a side of simply yes or no, Adam Gopnik, a writer for The New Yorker wrote “Team Spirit” to suggest solutions to the debate. In his essay, Gopnik asks rhetorical questions and uses comparisons to offer solutions to the growing question of whether student athletes should or should not be paid.

            To show the reader both sides of the argument, Gopnik asks rhetorical questions. In support of paying the student athletes Gopnik asks, “Nick Saban, the head coach at the University of Alabama, makes around seven million dollars a season; shouldn’t those who do the work share the wealth?” Many people would respond yes, but Gopnik uses this question to show why the student athletes should not be paid. He goes on to describe the ordeal that would follow if colleges began to pay their athletes. How much would a football player make compared to a woman track athlete? Should colleges only pay the athletes that play the sports that make the school the most money? By putting the problems that would follow into perspective for the reader, Gopnik is able to show why the solution to this debate is much more than a simple yes or no, and the many more problems that may arise if the decision is made to pay the athletes.

            After proving why it would be very difficult to decide to pay college athletes, Gopnik uses comparisons to provide a solution for the athletes that would like to be paid. Since the majority of the college athletes that are requesting to be paid are football and basketball players, Gopnik makes a connection to professional sports. He suggests the conclusion that the NFL and NBA should create minor league affiliations much like those of the MLB and NHL. Because baseball and hockey players have the ability to enter into a minor league program, they have the choice of whether to play their sport in college and gain an education, or play in the minors where they would make money. If the NFL and NBA were to create minor leagues, college athletes would no longer be asking for money, because the athletes that choose to play in college would make that decision for an education, and not for money. Gopnik’s comparison to the already existent MLB and NHL minor leagues allows him to come up with a solution that prevents student athletes from being paid.

            After the Northwestern football team was given the right to unionize by the Supreme Court, the conflict of whether or not student athletes should be paid stepped into the forefront. Adam Gopnik asks rhetorical questions and uses comparisons in his essay “Team Spirit”, to show why the athletes should not be paid and he offers a solution to the conflict. It is time to wait to see if Gopnik’s solution is put into effect.