ICYMI: President Biden Meets With Former College Football Players to Discuss Challenges They Face

On Wednesday, President Biden dropped by a meeting with former college football players and advocates to hear about some of the challenges college football players and other college athletes face. The President was joined in the meeting by Lael Brainard, Director of the National Economic Council and Steven Benjamin, Director of Public Engagement.

Participants, including Andrew Luck, Desmond Howard, Rod Gilmore, Ryan Clark, Keith Marshall, Kevin Negandhi and Jordan, discussed why they believe it is important for college football players - and all college athletes - to have consistent safety standards, to have voice, and to benefit from the revenue they produce.

Read more below:

SportsCenter: White House holding meeting on revenue sharing, safety in college sports
[11/8/23]

DUNCAN: Elle Duncan back with you on Sports Center. You may be wondering why only Elle Duncan. 'Cuz there is Kevin Negandhi, my cohost, at the White House. Kevin and some of our colleagues, Desmond Howard, Ryan Clark, Rod Gilmore were part of a roundtable discussion on NCAA issues with the Biden Administration. Former NFL quarterback Andrew Luck also part of the discussion on name, image, and likeness.

Sports Illustrated: President Biden Meets With Former NCAA Football Players Over College Athlete Rights
[Richard Johnson, 11/8/23]

What was originally supposed to be a drop-in during the roundtable by the president ended up being about an hour spent with the players. After engaging them in the roundtable, Biden took them on a 20–30 minute tour of the White House, including the Oval Office. (Biden did not address or take questions from the press.)

[…]

"For him to give us a tour and tell us about the different history that's a part of his office and why it is, I think, is one of those times where you actually understand and feel like that they are serving the people," Clark said. "And so I thought it was a really good thing. I thought that his attention to what we were saying, and the passion that, whether it was Rod, Desmond, Kevin showed for the young student-athletes was amazing. I think it was palpable and tangible in that room, and hopefully something comes of it."

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Desmond Howard meets with President Biden to discuss football player safety
[Sabrina Eaton, 11/8/23]

After the meeting, Howard said he was "blown away, that the President and his staff ... see how important this is that they will actually carve out some little piece of his schedule to meet with us and talk to us and listen to us."

"For them to see how important this is to have this roundtable just a just gives us a lot of encouragement, a lot of hope, and it really excited everyone who was there," Howard told Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer, before catching a flight to Athens, Georgia, for his job as a college football analyst.

WANF Atlanta: Keith Marshall on WANF Atlanta
[11/9/23]

MARSHALL: "I think the administration is open to the idea of supporting student athletes in whatever the student athletes, the governing bodies that are involved determine is the best path forward. We didn't get into the specifics of exactly what that looked like but we did discuss different potential outcomes but it did not go that far to where rubber meets the road. It was very much an ideation session."

The Paul Finebaum Show: Marshall breaks down White House roundtable meeting
[11/8/23]

MARSHALL: "It was a very exciting conversation, I was extremely happy to be a part of it and I think some good will hopefully come from it."

The Athletic: Ex-CFB players meet with Biden about athletes' rights
[Seth Emerson, 11/8/23]
They ended up getting much more than that: President Biden not only stopped by the meeting, but he spent an hour with the players, giving them a tour of the Oval Office and cabinet room and listening to their thoughts on players' rights.
"It was really cool. He was really interested in giving us an in-depth explanation of his journey, why he was passionate about what we were talking about," former Georgia running back Keith Marshall said. "It was much more than I was anticipating."

The Athletic: White House visit marks important day in college athletics, if the NCAA listens
[Seth Emerson, 11/9/23]
Marshall said this while standing in the paved walkway outside the West Wing, the one you see Senators, diplomats and other dignitaries being interviewed near after leaving important meetings with the president. This time it was Marshall and a group of fellow former college football players, who had just spent an hour with President Biden. It was a meeting you may be choosing to ignore because (a) it doesn't involve Jim Harbaugh or Deion Sanders, (b) there's still an actual football season going on, (c) these NIL-type issues seem boring. Or you might just be turned off because you don't like politics, or this president's politics, which is fine.
Still, let's be clear: This was an important day for the future of college athletics. And a good one, if the right people are paying attention.

BET: Former NCAA Football Players Meet at White House to Discuss College Athlete Rights
[Rashad Grove, 11/9/23]

Clark, a current NFL analyst on ESPN, spoke about the need for equitable policies for college athletes and believes that the White House roundtable was a step in the right direction.

"I think this conversation was to see what policies can be enacted. It was to see how to have the conversation with the NCAA," Clark said. "It was how to have the conversation with those who want to represent the student-athletes and what policies could be enforced. And to be honest it wasn't about a policy that could only help student-athletes. We want it to be beneficial to the NCAA. Want it to be fair. We want it to be equitable in a way that it can be equitable."

USA Today: President Biden part of discussion on creating 'better environment' for college athletes
[Steve Berkowitz and Michael Collins, 11/8/23]
Former Georgia running back Keith Marshall told USA TODAY Sports that the session, which also included a number of White House staffers, lasted for more than an hour. And while he said he came into the meeting wondering whether it was a "PR play," he came away believing the White House "is clearly very interested in being involved in the conversation" about ongoing college sports issues and "how to create a better environment" for college athletes.
"It was just exciting," added Marshall, who is a co-founder of The Players' Lounge, a web platform that provides content from current and former college athletes and seeks to provide them with additional opportunities to make money from their name, image and likeness (NIL).

Spectrum News 1: Biden, White House officials meet with advocates for compensation, safety for college athletes
[Cassie Semyon, 11/8/23]

"The narrative that's been out there for so long is that the NCAA needs help and protection," said Rod Gilmore, a former Stanford University defensive back who now works as an ESPN college football analyst, in an interview with Spectrum News. "But to be here and have the White House interested in helping and listening to players and former players in protecting players was refreshing."
"At last, finally, players will be heard," he said.

NBC4 Columbus: Andrew Luck, Desmond Howard among former players to attend White House event on student-athletes
[Brett Samuels, 11/8/23]
The meeting marked a rare instance of the White House weighing in on the complex issues around college athletics and benefits for student-athletes, particularly when it comes to name, image and likeness (NIL) deals that allow players to benefit financially.

CBS Sports: President Biden meets with former college football starts to discuss hot-button issues facing the sport
[Cameron Salerno, 11/9/23]

A statement from the White House said Biden attended the meeting to "hear about why college football players - and all student-athletes - deserve consistent safety standards, a voice, and to benefit from the revenue they produce."

[…]

"We didn't talk about the policies in particular," Clark told The Athletic. "I think this conversation was to see what policies can be enacted. It was to see how to have the conversation with the NCAA. It was how to have the conversation with those who want to represent the student-athletes and what policies could be enforced. And to be honest it wasn't about a policy that could only help student-athletes. We want it to be beneficial to the NCAA. Want it to be fair. We want it to be equitable in a way that it can be equitable.

On3: President Biden talks NIL, revenue sharing with college football stakeholders
[Pete Nakos, 11/9/23]

"The overall gist of the conversation was, really, to discuss the rights of college athletes as we move into a new era of college sports," Marshall said on The Paul Finebaum Show. "There were really two main categories that we discussed, and I'm sure many people are not surprised by the first being NIL. They really were just interested in getting perspective of what that looks like, and they wanted to hear from us. What do we think is going well? What do we think could be improved upon and what direction should the industry move going forward?

"The second category where we spent a little bit more time talking was about the health and safety of student-athletes, and it was really, how do we protect these student-athletes? How do we provide them the right resources, not only while they're in school, but now that we're moving more to a free market model, is there an opportunity to get some benefits that exist way after their playing days are over?"

Front Office Sports: NCAA Football Players' Rights Have Caught the Attention of President Biden
[Amanda Christovich, 11/9/23]
There were no policy decisions made in the meeting, but the issues are clearly significant to the Biden administration.
"The way this was explained to me is: 'We see this meeting as similar to meetings the President has had with Starbucks workers who are organizing Starbucks stores, or the guys who are organizing Amazon warehouses,'" College Football Players Association executive director Jason Stahl told FOS. "Because those organizing efforts are happening absent of the help and assistance of traditional labor institutions." (Stahl wasn't in the meeting, but helped with organization and was in D.C.)

The Hill: Andrew Luck, Desmond Howard among former players to attend White House event on student-athletes
[Brett Samuels, 11/9/23]

"The student-athletes who play college football work hard on behalf of their schools, their communities, and their families and President Biden believes all workers should be treated fairly and college athletes should be too," the White House official said in a statement. "All college athletes deserve consistent safety standards, to have voice, and to benefit from the revenue they produce."