Auburn Football Player Jordan Spriggs’ Ill-Advised Tweet Proves That Student-Athlete Concept Is a Mirage

Auburn University freshman defensive back Jordan Spriggs has a paper due soon, and he decided to do what any Division I NCAA player would do to pass the class. Spoiler alert: It’s not research and hours in the library.

On Wednesday, Spriggs brought a swirling tornado of controversy to Auburn with a moronic tweet for the ages.

“man who is good at writing papers????????????? I pay…,” Spriggs asked his roughly 500 followers.

Spriggs deleted his Twitter account quickly, potentially realizing the gravity of what he had just published on the Internet, but not until his statements were happily retweeted by two fellow players.

Antoine Carter jovially pointed out “u gotta be the dumbest person in the world lol.”

Linebacker Daren Bates added “youve gone too far mahn.”

So now the thin veil has been lifted a little bit more to expose the NCAA’s twisted game of pretending that their athletes are obtaining a meaningful education while simultaneously training and competing for their sports’ respective national championship.

The NCAA needs to start treating collegiate sports like the springboard to the professional leagues that it is. Now, more college football players than ever attend school for less than four years — and don’t graduate — before declaring for the draft and moving on to the NFL, where they will make millions. How much learning is actually going on during these “semesters,” when most of their time is spent in the gym or on the field?

All of this comes on the heels of ex-Florida coach Urban Meyer spilling the beans on corruption in college sports, and stories like Spriggs’ give Meyers’ words more weight.

Freshman year in college can be difficult and is meant as a time for learning, life lessons more so than scholastic ones. Auburn and the NCAA would be foolish not to teach one here and suspend Briggs for his actions, since they show a complete lack of respect for everything that the NCAA and college represent.  

In the meantime, Spriggs should probably not broadcast to the world that he is cheating his way through college. 

Do you think cheating is prevalent among NCAA student-athletes? Share your thoughts below.