Houston Texans running back Arian Foster is fighting for college athletes’ rights. The pro player says he isn’t scared of the NCAA, and hopes that his admission that he was paid while playing in college at Tennessee will help change rules about paying college athletes.
“I just feel strong about the injustice that the NCAA has been doing for years,” Foster said Friday. “That’s why I said what I said. I’m not trying to throw anybody under the bus. … I feel like I shouldn’t have to run from the NCAA anymore. They’re like these big bullies. I’m not scared of them.”
In an interview posted on SI.com for a documentary called “Schooled: The Price of College Sports,” Foster said he took extra money so he could pay his rent and food while playing at Tennessee.
“I don’t know if this will throw us into an NCAA investigation — my senior year (2008), I was getting money on the side,” Foster said in the video. “I really didn’t have any money. I had to either pay the rent or buy some food. I remember the feeling of like, ‘Man, be careful.’ But there’s nothing wrong with it. And you’re not going to convince me that there is something wrong with it.”
Foster described a time when he had to beg his coach for a meal.
“Either you give us some food or I’m gonna go do something stupid,” Foster told his coach. The coach bought him and three others 50 tacos, Foster recalled, laughing.
Foster played at the University of Tennessee under former coach Phil Fulmer from 2005-08.
