Justin Combs earned a football scholarship to UCLA for his athletic and academic abilities. Asking his father to now pay his way through school is silly at best.
By: A.J. Niles
Every year, millions of young teenage men and women go out daily and sacrifice their bodies playing sports for a chance to earn a college scholarship. These young people come from all walks of life; some rich and some poor. Justin Combs, the son Sean Diddy Combs, did just this. As a result of his hard work in the classroom and on the football field, Justin earned a football scholarship from UCLA, one of the best public institutions of higher learning in America.
To understand how Justin earned this honor to play football for UCLA, just take a look at his high school highlight reel. Although he can be considered an undersized defensive back at 5’9 and 175 pounds, he definitely plays well enough to make an impact for the UCLA Bruins in the not too distant future.
Now keep in mind, Justin earned this scholarship on merit, not on the wallet of his father Diddy.
So, the Daily Mail recently reported the amount of Justin’s scholarship will be $54,000.
Ever since this amount was revealed, we now have those that are demanding Justin give back his scholarship and Diddy pay for his time at UCLA. Forbes magazine reports Diddy is one of the richest artists and moguls in Hip Hop today with an estimated worth of $550 million. It has also been rumored that Diddy bought Justin a Bentley for his Sweet Sixteen party.
But after all of that, did Diddy help Justin tackle that running back when he played at Iona Prep? Did Diddy show him how to line up and properly defend a post route? To demand a dad pay his son’s way through school, despite the fact he worked all through high school to maintain a high GPA and play well enough to earn a football scholarship is foolish, and just as pompous as society tends to think the wealthy behave.
I understand that there are many people that are struggling to pay for college without dealing with that witch Sallie Mae. Student loan default rates are at all time highs and every year, tuition constantly increases, while salaries stay at a fixed rate so low that they have just become laughable. But focusing that energy on one kid that worked hard is not right at all.
What those who are against this should do is attempt to persuade Diddy to donate a good piece of change to UCLA’s scholarship endowment. As a former student of Howard University, he definitely understands the importance of a college education, which is why he now has a son that earned his way to pay for school.
The saddest thing of all of this is that those UCLA students that are criticizing this scholarship will be the same ones to forget about it once the headlines fade and will be cheering him on when he is playing the USC Trojans, UCLA’s biggest rival, this fall.
I can’t stand Diddy, but there’s no need to pick on his kid. For goodness sake he actually earned the scholarship and actually has something to bring to the school’s football team. So let’s just be happy that a rich kid decided he wanted to actually do something on his own.
People are definitely overreacting with this one. He shouldn’t have to give a dime back especially since he busted his a– in class and on the field. Haters.
He should definitely keep his scholarship. I guess rich people are supposed to pay their kids way through life, huh?
Who his father is has nothing to do with what he’s done on his own. I give the young man props on getting the money for his education in a way most rich kids don’t. This is insane.