Governor Jerry Brown has certainly been busy lately. In the stack of bills the Governor signed
before the Sunday deadline, there was one in there that should make student
athletes and their parents rest a little easier. SB1525 was designed to protect injured athletes at
the 4 universities receiving over $10 million in sports revenues. This includes: USC, UCLA, Berkeley, and
Stanford. These 4 athletic powerhouses
are being targeted because their sports programs are world class, but the risk
of injury is also great enough that a career ending injury on the field could
also potentially mean the end to a student’s academic career as well.
Student athletes playing in big sports schools and tough conferences
seem to have one eye on the prize- a career in the NFL, NBA, etc… There are Heisman
trophies to be won, multi- million dollar contracts, and cushy lives from 6-9
years of professional playing time to be obtained. But it all can be lost in a moment. One tear to the knee, fracture, severe
concussion, or worse, could end a player’s career in both college sports and
end the dream of the big leagues.
HOW SB1525 WILL
PROTECT INJURED STUDENT ATHLETES
SB1525 protects student athletes in a number of important
ways, including:
·
Providing academic scholarships for injuredathletes who lose their academic scholarships. This preserves a student’s right
to obtain a quality education at a school they might not have otherwise been
able to afford.
·
Requiring universities to pay insurance
deductibles and health care premiums for low- income students
·
Guaranteeing future medical costs for students
who received on- the- field injuries
Said
bill sponsor, Senator Alex Padilla (D- Los Angeles), “Neither personal injury
nor poverty should dim the dreams of a student-athlete pursuing a college
degree, particularly when their performance has enriched their college.”
CA Established as Friendly to Injured
Athletes
This
bill makes California the first state to mandate financial and educational
protections for injured student athletes.
But did you also know that California is already widely known in
professional sports as a friendly state to collect Worker’s Compensation
benefits for career ending injuries as well?
This bill completes California’s image as a friendly place for injured
athletes.
If
you are a student athlete who is injured during the course of a game, you have
rights. And if you want to understand
those rights better, you and your parents may want to consult a skilledpersonal injury attorney.