By John Kromko
Arizona Daily Wildcat
February 27, 1998

Players should think about contract

To the Editor:

In light of the pending contract between Nike and the U of A, I'm surprised that no athletic team members have raised any civil rights or free speech issues.

It's bad enough that the basketball court and the football field are going to be "tagged" with the Nike logo, but each player is going to be forced to personally wear the logo. I assume that the players didn't give their permission for this when they agreed to play for the university.

I wonder if any players would see the issue more clearly if the next contract required them to wear Ronald McDonald suits.

Surely there must be a few players who object to Nike's slave labor tactics or terrible human rights record. Maybe some players think Nike is being unfair to American labor by not making even one shoe in this country.

Or maybe a player or two thinks that college sports shouldn't be commercialized, or maybe a few players just like Reeboks better and feel that it would be a violation of their rights to be forced to support another brand. Maybe a few players will express themselves at the Nike Protest Rally at the north side of McKale Center this Saturday at 10 a.m.

John Kromko
former State Legislator