A Labor Day tweet by the Wooden Athletic Fund — the “fundraising arm of the UCLA athletic department” — caused a bit of a stir for its … indelicate wording.
“Happy Labor Day Bruins! It’s your support that allows our student-athletes to go to work! Thank you!” Wooden’s now-deleted tweet had read.
So what’s the big deal? The words “go to work.”
Fueled by the current national debate over whether NCAA student-athletes should be paid, much of the Twitter reaction came from the connotation of the word “work.” While it is a common sports phrase, a number of people felt that the characterization was inappropriate coming from an organization that does not treat athletes as employees.
The Wooden Athletic Fund […] deleted the tweet within hours of its posting, but not before former NFL tight end Tom Crabtree posted a screenshot to his 115,000 followers. Crabtree attended college at Miami University and retired from professional football earlier this year.
ESPN baseball writer Keith Law picked up Crabtree’s tweet on Tuesday, asking his nearly-half-million followers, “Work, huh? Doesn’t work usually involve a salary?”
The tweet’s timing wasn’t great, to be sure. A couple weeks back, the National Labor Relations Board declined jurisdiction in the case of Northwestern University’s football team’s attempt at establishing a players union.
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However, the phrase “go to work” is a fairly common one in sports, pro and amateur.
As a life-long Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams fan myself, the slogan was a staple of former head coach Dick Vermeil, who led the team to its only Super Bowl. In fact, there’s even a book about the 1999 Rams championship team with that expression in its title.
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