Feel good story of the day
By Nick Ragone | Related entries in News
Our professional and collegiate sports are filled with too many ugly stories … drug abuse, boorish behavior, a total disregard for society around them; look no further than the ongoing saga of Stephon Marbury and the New York Knicks as exhibit A.
But once in a while there’s an uplifting story, such as the case of Florida State safety Myron Rolle, who yesterday was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship to study in Oxford, England, next year. He actually missed half the game against Maryland — an important one for FSU — in order to conduct the Rhodes interview, a critical part of the scholarship process.
He’s arguably the most high profile athlete to win the achievement since Bill Bradley in the early 70s. His credentials: he held a 3.75 GPA in pre-med while graduating in 2.5 years. Oh, and he’s an All-American safety and almost certain first round NFL pick.
Rolle is an aspiring neurosurgeon, and wants to set up a clinic in the Bahamas. He’ll have to forgo two years of a lucrative NFL payday in order to study abroad, but he’s thinking long-term beyond his playing days.
He’s in some elite company — other high profile athletes to win the award include Heisman winner Pete Dawkins, Heisman runner-up and Supreme Court Justice Byron White, NBA Hall of Famer and presidential candidate Bill Bradley, and Congressman Tom McMillen.
If he does play in the NFL someday, I hope the league spends as much time glorfying his accomplishment as they do snot-knocking hits.
This entry was posted on Sunday, November 23rd, 2008 and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Wow, he does have that “healthy mind in a healthy body” thing going, doesn’t he?