Sports Radio Interviews

Ed O’Bannon: Seeing Me Was A Slap In The Face

Former UCLA Bruins basketball stud Ed O’Bannon is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the NCAA.  Ed is asking that he as well as other college student-athletes be compensated when their image and likeness is used after they leave school.  This is a real head-scratcher for me; shouldn’t this have been taken care of already?  I mean, college basketball and football players have been portrayed for years in video games, re-airing of games, DVDs, etcetera.  Is it because we’re talking about the NCAA, an association which rules over a body of non-paid athletes, why the legislature isn’t in place?  I’m not a lawyer – nor, anything of importance – but this just seems so elementary to me.  I suppose there is some sort of agreement signed by the student-athlete body and the NCAA, but I assume because it’s not a professional league that something like this was left out.  Ed O’Bannon joined ESPN Radio in Los Angeles to discuss how he first saw himself in a video game, why he’s bringing this issue forth 14 years after leaving college, and why this was a natural fit for him.

Why would you wait 14 years to bring this case forward?

“Well, why not?  I think there’s no better time than the present.  As long as you have a case, as long as there’s something that you can do to change the world, for lack of a better term, or at least change the lives of some of your peers, you have that opportunity, why not?  Why not take a stand?”

How did you found out about your likeness is in a modern video game?

“In a nutshell, it was one of those things where a couple of my friends and I were hanging out in his particular backyard, and his kids were making noise because they were playing a video game, and so we went in to see what was going on.  They were playing with UCLA, or the team that I played on and we were just kind of standing there, and we were watching and kind of going over the movements of the players, and uniforms, and what not… It’s just one of those things where we’re standing there, just kinda minding our own business, and it kinda slaps you in the face, so to speak.”

The NCAA has figured out ways to make money off your years at UCLA.  Could you have seen this coming?

“No, I don’t think you can see it coming.  I think really, once it does happen I guess, you take action.  In my opinion, it’s about doing what’s right.  No, absolutely, you don’t see it coming, but once it is in front of you, you take action.”

This seems to be a hard decision for you. How difficult was the decision to start this lawsuit?

“I don’t think it was really all that hard.  Once I talked to my wife and just kind of explained everything, and explained I guess the pros and cons from what I saw, she and I both agreed that this would be a great opportunity to kind of open the door for a lot of former student-athletes.  I just think as a leader in high school and college on my respective teams, this is another great opportunity for me personally, to lead.  That’s just kind of the way I was raised and it’s really the only way I know how to live.”

Ed O’Bannon on ESPN Radio in Los Angeles

Tags: Basketball, College Basketball, Ed O'Bannon, NCAA