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Scandalous Games
Scandalous Games is a video game history podcast that takes a closer look at video game related controversies. Every episode, historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story about a scandalous event from gaming's past to his friends who offer commentary on moral panics, ill-advised advertising campaigns, unusual figures, and any and all topics related to video game scandals and how they shaped the medium. New episodes drop on the first and third Tuesdays of every month! Check out more info, including show notes and sources, at http://scandalousgamespodcast.wordpress.com.
Scandalous Games
The NCAA Video Game Lawsuits, Part 4: Wherein Kevin ruins college sports for everyone
Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch and Phil Thomas. As we get to the bottom of why it took 11 years to get a new college football video game, we take a closer look at how schools and the NCAA treat college athletes and the lengths college programs will go to not compensate players (even with a full education) to preserve amateurism.
Topics discussed include: a totally not problematic discussion about crab legs, the Rhodes Scholar turned NFL player turned neurosurgeon, and how dodging worker's compensation got us the "student-athlete."
For more on NCAA sanctions against players (as well as a bunch of other topics related to this series), check out Joe Nocera and Ben Strauss, Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA (New York: Random House, 2016): https://www.amazon.com/Indentured-Inside-Story-Rebellion-Against/dp/1591846323.
For more on the college exploits of Jameis Winston and Cam Newton, check out:
"Florida's Newton faces felony counts after fellow student's laptop stolen," Associated Press (via ESPN), November 21, 2008, https://www.espn.com/college-football/news/story?id=3718266.
"Jameis Winston: Store employee 'hooked us up' with crab legs," ESPN, April 22, 2015, https://www.espn.com/nfl/draft2015/story/_/id/12739843/jameis-winston-florida-state-seminoles-says-crab-legs-were-given-not-stolen.
Elliot C. McLaughlin, "FSU settles for $950,000 in Jameis Winston rape case," CNN, January 26, 2016, https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/25/us/florida-state-fsu-settles-jameis-winston-rape-lawsuit/index.html
For more on the SMU scandal and the college football "death penalty," check out
On the average NFL career length by position, see: Christina Gough, "Average playing career length in the National Football League," Statista, March 12, 2024, https://www.statista.com/statistics/240102/average-player-career-length-in-the-national-football-league/.
On Dr. Myron Rolle, former NFL player and current neurosurgeon, see: Wright Thompson, "The Burden of Being Myron Rolle," ESPN Outside the Lines, http://www.espn.com/espn/eticket/story?page=100218/myronrolle. Also, his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmyronrolle.
Theme Music: Occam's Sikhweee by Sikh Knowledge (Free Music Archive: https://bit.ly/33G4sLO), used under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US (https://bit.ly/33JXogQ).
Also, one slight correction: the College Football Playoff has 12 teams, not 16.
More info, including show notes and sources at http://scandalousgamespodcast.wordpress.com.
Be sure to also check out Andy and Phil's new podcast where they re-watch the 1990s animated series Beast Wars: Transformers, called So...We Were Talking About Beast Wars, wherever you get your podcasts!