Texas Size Crack Down on Unethical Agents

A review last year by The Associated Press found that even though most states try to regulate sports agents, most had not revoked or suspended a single license or invoked penalties of any sort. Neither had the Federal Trade Commission, which was given oversight authority about seven years ago.

This interesting excerpt coming from an interesting article posted by Jim Vertuno of Bloomberg Businessweek.

With unethical agents always having been around the game and not many measures in place to deter the bottom of the barrel scum from imposing their life altering will and some times detrimental ways upon the youth of today. Texas has began to put measures into place that will impose some types of negative reprecussions upon those unethical agents who make the choice to manipulate a young students future.

Unethical agents have many ways at tempting a young student athlete. Many times we forget these athletes are still just kids. We see these young athletes perform successfully under extreme amounts of pressure at times. Performing under pressure in front of hundreds of people and sometimes thousands of people. We take it for granted that these kids have been coached up on the field so surely they have been coached up off the field. They are all still kids. Just as you and I made mistakes in our adolescent years, these kids are just as susceptible to making bad choices also. Especially when you factor in the unethical who wave temptation around in the youngsters faces on a daily basis. These people are no different than the predatory types that warrant laws in order to keep the same youth from being hurt physically. These unethical agents may not be causing physical harm but they are causing harm nonetheless. Any action that alters an unsuspecting youths future in a negative manner can be considered detrimental to that youths well being. And while some of these negative actions seem to take place with young adults at the college level. I would venture to say that the process had began while the kid was still underage and only comes to light after the athlete has crossed over into young adulthood at the college level. Even still causing irrepairable harm to anyone, regardless of their age, is a crime that shouldn’t go unpunished but many times it does.

The young student athlete of today does need to become more educated with the unethical side of the sports business. Just as we educate our youth on the dangers of sexual predators, the dangers of playing fire and all things that can cause both physical and mental harm to us or others. While it’s nearly impossible to guard against all things harmful. The state of Texas is taking a step in the right direction. Hopefully more states will follow the example of the Lone Star State!

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