Cory A. Booker

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Mr. President, I want to end with this. I gave an example of the lies that the NCAA tells--that they are about the protection of student-athletes first. The example I gave was a change the NFL did, which all of us who are football fans know about, when they said: You know what, we are going to change the kickoff rules. Why did they change the kickoff rules? Well, I know from my personal experience of screaming down a field trying to break UCLA's wedge; I learned this from rushing down the field to try to tackle people, playing against USC; I learned this in playing Notre Dame--that one of the most dangerous things you could do is get a full head of steam and run down on a kickoff. Well, they changed the kickoff rules to protect NFL athletes, and it has worked. There are less injuries in this area. It is working. Is there a peep from the NCAA? Don't you think that college sports should have more protective policies than the pros? Well, no. The pros--it is a business. We all know that. They invest millions of dollars in these employees of theirs, and they are taking actions to protect their players that the NCAA isn't. The NCAA is an economic group of actors who seek to maximize profit. Look at their decades-long history. It is not about player protection. How do I know that? There are no enforceable standards for sexual assault. There are no enforceable standards for heatstroke. We have cases right now of brain injuries. I have friends of mine still paying for the medical costs for injuries they incurred putting thousands of people into seats. When it comes to academic graduation rates, when it comes to all the things they tell people they are concerned with, the evidence speaks that that is not their No. 1 concern. And this body wants to give them sweeping antitrust power permanently, in perpetuity, forever, with no accountability. No accountability to Congress. Limited accountability in the courts. No accountability to the girls and boys, the young student-athletes, the college players who bring this country together, who give us some of our greatest life experiences. This is unfair. This is unjust. This is wrong. Hundreds of organizations that represent student-athletes, that represent ideals of justice, that represent ideals of economic justice--heck, you even have somebody like Brett Kavanaugh--excuse me--you have even somebody like Gorsuch saying things like: It is a business model--this is the NCAA-- that would be flatly illegal in any other industry in America. Yet we are moving rocket-speed when most of the Members haven't even gotten the final bill yet. They literally haven't put the bill in most of the offices here, and we are rushing to move on to it right now without reading the bill, without discussing it, without having hearings that have college athletes that have justifiable experiences, survivors of sexual assault, parents whose children have died, people that have court cases against the NCAA right now. The NCAA knows it is going to save them from millions of dollars of liability. That is why they are spending so much money to pass this bill. It is not about the safety, it is not about the well-being, it is not about the education of college athletes. This is a money play, plain and simple. Read the bill. Talk to college athletes. If we pass this bill, it is a shame. After years and years of trying, college athletes finally have gained some leverage over the NCAA. No, they can't win in court, so the NCAA runs here. I ask my colleagues not to move to this bill. Definitely do not move it if you have not read it, if your staff hasn't gotten the final copy yet. I ask my colleagues to vote no. I yield the floor.