Despite the mixed feelings of many on the issue, however, it seems as though Jeremy Bloom had his rights restricted very strongly by the NCAA, since there was no correlation between the football that he was playing at the University of Colorado and the skiing-related endorsements that he was receiving payment for. Bloom may have given up these rights when he enrolled in the University, but it is suspected that he was not aware that these rights were going to leave him. He is not seen as a troublemaker that was simply trying to cause problems for the University, but as an honest and polite young man that wanted to play football and ski.

It just so happens that he got paid for endorsements for one of these things, and was on a college team for the other. It makes sense that college football players could not also play on professional teams, for example, but when two sports are so strongly unrelated as football and skiing, the issue takes on significance not just because of the NCAA ruling but because that ruling represents partial control over some aspect of the college student's life and it is likely that the students never really thought about this issue or whether they would have to give up certain things that they believed to be unrelated simply to play college sports.

Problems such as this one seldom stay small, and Bloom fought with the NCAA for over two years. Although he ultimately lost, he made his case very well. Still, however, this did not change the mind of the NCAA or of the judges that he appealed to. Likely, it only angered the NCAA when Bloom went over their heads and challenged them in court, instead of just simply accepting what their ruling was. That ruling, however, cost Bloom a lot of money in endorsements.

This is money that he could have used not only to fund the trips that he takes for skiing but also to fund his college education, purchase a vehicle, purchase a home, or do many other things that people of that age would want to do. Just because Bloom received money for these endorsements does not mean that he was greedy or that he was only interested in taking money for something that he was doing. It is much more likely that he was interested in using this money to fund his college career and to set himself up so that he would be ready for life when he finished college.

He was not only in college to play football but wanted to receive a degree as well and was interested in business and management as opposed to simply being on the football field. In other words, Bloom was a well rounded individual and was looking at all aspects of the case and trying to determine what would be best for him. Whether he chose correctly is a point for opinion and discussion but there are really no right or wrong answers when it comes to what one chooses to do with one's own personal life. Bloom became a sort of advocate or spokesperson for going against the NCAA, which was not his intention.

He did not originally set out to go up against the NCAA or to argue with individuals regarding what is that he wanted to do with his life. Instead, he only wanted the ruling changed not just for him but for all of the other individuals out there that have opportunities such as his that were being taken away by what the NCAA ruled when it comes to college sports. The significance of a problem such as this therefore goes much deeper than just one individual.

Review of Related Literature

Reviewing the literature in any study is very important, and this study is no exception. The literature must be looked at carefully, because there are many different feelings and opinions about this issue and therefore a great deal of literature has been written about it in many different magazines. Most of this is specific to the Jeremy Bloom case, and all of it deals with the NCAA and the kinds of rulings that they make regarding this particular issue.

Bloom did indeed leave football for skiing for a while, since skiing was his first love. There are still some articles out there that talk about him saying goodbye to football, but Bloom has stopped taking endorsement money from skiing so that...

This does not mean that he has stopped skiing, but only that he has stopped taking some of the offered money that came with it. He started skiing when he was only three. It is something that he has done all of his life, and although he hated to leave football, he couldn't let that stop him from going down the slopes and trying to win.
Even though Bloom is not a big person, he is extremely good at football, and those on his team hated to see him leave to compete in skiing events. He knew, however, that the NCAA appeal that he made was lost and therefore he had to choose between the two sports that he most wanted to be involved in. Instead of choosing one sport and completely dropping the other, Bloom simply left the endorsement money behind so that there would be no complaints from the NCAA about him remaining involved in both sports.

At first, Bloom was bitter at the ruling of the NCAA. He felt that they were being unfair in making him choose, and believed that their reasons were not sound and valid. However, he stated in one interview after a two-year battle in which he still lost, that the NCAA received too much attention of the negative sort over what they did, and that they actually taught him an important lesson about life.

He believes that what the NCAA taught him will make him a rich man someday, and he also says that the NCAA made decisions while he was in college that were intelligent for the most part, but there were some that he has trouble forgetting. One of these came from seeing a young man overcome brain cancer and succeed at this well enough to play varsity baseball. He also wrote a book. When the book was published, it attached the young man's name to what the NCAA termed a "corporate product" and so the young man lost his eligibility and could no longer play baseball.

In January of this year, Bloom said that he would challenge the NCAA again and would once again start accepting endorsements, but that he intended to play football as well. He believed that he could win this time, and the NCAA would either be forced to look bad by forbidding him from playing football, or they would be forced to change the policy that they have about endorsement money

While this sounds as though it would be the end of the story, in fact it is not. Earlier this year, Jeremy Bloom was ruled ineligible to play football because he repeatedly violated the NCAA rule against taking endorsements. Apparently Bloom had asked the NCAA twice about endorsements and had been told 'no.' He then asked the courts twice, and was told the same thing. Allegedly, he still entered into contracts after those rulings that required him to endorse products, which was a clear violation of the rules that the NCAA sets out for student athletes.

Congressional testimony dealing with this very issue indicated that the belief was that Jeremy Bloom was not treated fairly and that the rulings given by the NCAA were not actually as fair and impartial as they claimed to be. The statements that Bloom made about his skiing and football concerns were found to be very important, but there was no change in what the NCAA would allow Bloom to do and no one forced the NCAA to change the rules that it had set out for student athletes. At least for now, Jeremy Bloom will not be playing any football for the University of Colorado.

In addition to the sources presented here there has also been much discussion of Jeremy Bloom in various newspapers. While newspapers are not really appropriate for a review of this type of literature it is interesting to note that many small towns and even some of the larger towns that have the bigger newspapers took an interest in Bloom's case and whether he would succeed before the NCAA.

Discussion of Source Materials

There is actually not a great deal to say about the source material used for this research. Much of it comes from information in sporting magazines and therefore there seems to be a certain bias that is seen in that many of those that write about the issue seem to hint at the idea that Jeremy Bloom should be allowed to continue…