A New Perspective on Student-Athletes

Submitted by MGoShoe on
I just got back from Blacksburg where my wife and I attended my son's freshman orienation at Virginia Tech. Last night in the dining hall it was not hard to pick out the freshman football players. Some of these kids were absolute mountains already. But even with their size, they were just kids. I mean, they looked like their age: 18 or 19 year olds. What's the point of this? As I get older, I have to remind myself that college sports are played by young adults and they deserve much more slack than we give them. Does anyone else struggle with this aspect of college sports? If so, at what age did this become an issue for you? Perhaps it's not one's age that matters, but rather it's when your own kids reach college age.
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st barth

July 8th, 2010 at 9:09 AM ^

I recall thinking in high school that it was pretty impressive that these guys who are only a couple years older than me were playing in front of 100,000 fans and national tv audiences.  Maybe that's why I've always been a pretty level-headed fan.

I love watching the games, but I also question the value of having large stadiums, tv contracts and big money floating around.  Point is, that I love M football for the same reason that I loved my high school football team:  it's my school's team.  It is nice to win but really it's just a game and is meant to be fun.

That's why I hate all of the mythical national championship talk.  I preferred the old bowl system where just being in the game was fun & a reward in itself.  Just being in LA & Disneyland (instead of freezing-ass Michigan) was the highlight, winning the game was somewhat secondary.

 

Joined: 12/02/2008

MGoPoints: -576

Anonymosity

July 8th, 2010 at 10:31 AM ^

Does anyone else struggle with this aspect of college sports?
Sometimes when watching college sports, I think about how much younger the players are than me now (I'm 27) and wonder why, exactly, I care so much about the athletic performance of a bunch of kids. With that perspective, I try to avoid ever being overly critical of any college athlete's performance.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 2482

TheDirtyD

July 8th, 2010 at 11:06 AM ^

it would be fun i dont know why you guys do this. I played hockey at michigan its not 100,000 but, it wasnt nerve wrecking it was fun. Your whole high school and middle school years are spent working towards this goal and you finally reached it. Most of the time your not nervous, some of these kids recieve more pressure in high school. People in smaller towns always in school tell you they count on you winning states, pressure from within the community they are always being hasseled. Thats how jr's were in canada too. These kids wanted this they chose this so don't worry about being hard or getting upset because they have worked harder in 8 years to get here then a lot of adults have in 40 years of living.

Joined: 07/18/2009

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