News tended to protect athletes more during the years you mention. That doesn't mean it happened as much as more recently, but it certainly was not nonexistent as you claim. But even if you are completely correct, that does not prove Nike is the cause of it all or even any of it. Individuals are responsible for their own behavior. Only liberals think that is not the case. I blame them, since they have instituted liberal policies on campus which discourage individual responsibility.

Note: The exact wording above was deemed "below the civility threshold" and was rejected by Civil Comments. There is nothing uncivil about it. Liberal readers did not like its content and voted it down in order to censor it. This is what liberals do, both here and on campus. Let's see if they do it again.