Cartoon

Mike Keefe regularly draws cartoons that comment on current events and politics. This cartoon by Mike Keefe addresses the proposal to pay college football players. Paying the athletes would hopefully discourage them from taking cash incentives from scouts, keeping them at college earning their degree while playing, but many are opposed to the movement.

In Keefe's cartoon, a college football player is running to catch a bag of money, not a football, and audience members speculate that there is no difference between college football play and professional football play. There is no specific references to certain people or places made; it is a college player at a college game to be representative of all of college football.

The audience for this cartoon is American football fans. Some are fans of professional football, others fans of college football. The primary reason for people liking college football more than professional is that the athletes play with for their love of the game, whereas the professional athletes play for their salaries, and the  difference in the level of energy and play is evident on the field.

The cartoon is arguing that paying college players will make the game about money, not the game, and will remove exactly what makes college football unique and, as many would argue, better than the NFL. Keefe has one audience member allude to a classic football fan question by asking, "Which do you like best--college football or the pros?" This represents how the world of football ought to be, with the professional and college teams being different and the fans being able to watch either or both. The man who responds saying "What's the difference?" represents a future football fan if college players are paid. The second fan is ignorant college football as it is now.

The cartoon relies on both the visual and verbal. While the visual alone could certainly make its own point, the verbal emphasizes the negative change that would come from the visual aspect actually happening. The player's face is even desperate in his chase of the money bag, displaying that he is motivated purely by the money.

The tone of the cartoon is somewhat bitter and nostalgic, encouraging the reader to decide if he/she really wants college football to become all about the money.