Coaches Back Campaign to Flush Beer Ads from NCAA Sports
by Jim Brown
November 18, 2003
(AgapePress) - Two of the biggest names in college sports are supporting a new campaign to cut off the money flow to schools from advertising for beer and other alcoholic beverages.The Center for Science in the Public Interest has kicked off a campaign aimed at getting colleges and universities, athletic conferences, and the National Colligate Athletic Association to stop taking money from alcohol advertisers. Among those backing the effort at former Nebraska football coach and current Nebraska Congressman Tom Osborne, and former University of North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith.
Osborne says he and Smith are extremely concerned about underage drinking and how it impacts kids. "And I'm really concerned not only about alcohol, [but also] methamphetamines and cocaine and crack," he adds.
The Nebraska lawmaker believes that the best way to combat the country's drug problem is to curb underage drinking because "you don't usually start out on methamphetamines, you don't start out on crack -- you start with alcohol. And then once you begin to develop a alcohol-dependent personality, you begin to medicate with alcohol or you'll use anything you can get your hands on."
The former football coach says he was disturbed to find out that today's average young person starts drinking at age 12, and teenagers tend to drink twice as much per sitting as adults. Beer ads, he says, send the wrong message to young sports viewers.
"We have a lot of [young children and teens] who watch NCAA sports. They idolize those athletes," Osborne says. He believes those young fans see a "subtle connection" between the athletes and the advertisements that usually depict young people who are "attractive and having a good time."
Congressman Osborne says the NCAA is viable enough it can sell advertising elsewhere.
