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More and more people believe college athletes should be paid. A guy who would have made plenty of money in college agrees wholeheartedly.

Peterson said during a Wednesday conference call with reporters that players “are the ones making these universities money.” And he’s right.

“Johnny Manziel made Texas A&M so much money,” Peterson said, via Ben Goessling of ESPN.com. “When I was at Oklahoma, they made so much money.”

(Peterson is making plenty of money now, both on the field and off. Wednesday’s call was conducted in connection with a product known as Hyperice, a device for applying cooling and compression to injured body parts.)

It’s not just football players who are making money that they’re not getting.

“They’re trying to make basketball players go two years in college,” Peterson said. “Wow. I wonder why? Think about it — just imagine if LeBron James had been in college for two years. How much money would that college have made off LeBron James? They would have made so much money off LeBron James. It’s about the freedom to do as you want and make your own decisions.”

Amen to that. No matter how loudly those whose oxen will be gored scream against the concept of paying players who have never been paid, it’s the right thing to do. And it’s long overdue.