Myron Rolle
In the world of glorified athletes, many who put academics 2nd, what a great story that Myron Rolle won a Rhodes scholarship and missed half of his game this past Saturday. Very impressive kid and says a lot about his character, I wish him nothing but the best.
November 25th, 2008 at 10:44 AM ^
My question is, why did he go to Florida State?
This is a great story though, I'm sure the MSM will be pumping up this thing to keep the charade of the "student athlete" going.
November 25th, 2008 at 11:05 AM ^
Yeah, I said "Florida State has EVER had a Rhodes Scholar?" when I heard about it.
But the guy managed to graduate in 2.5 years while playing D1 football so he must be pretty goddamn brilliant.
November 25th, 2008 at 1:22 PM ^
Actually you might be quite surprised by Florida State. While it is no Harvard, it has had another athlete receive the Rhodes scholarship in the past few years. He was a shot-putter and a potential olympian. Rolle consulted with him throughout the process. If I am not mistaken (I can't find any online list of winners) they had a non-athlete in the past 2 years as well.
November 25th, 2008 at 2:41 PM ^
That is surprising. I'm not saying it's a bad school, I've just never heard anything positive about their academics.
November 25th, 2008 at 7:44 PM ^
Try not to take football trash to heart. Look, FSU, Ohio State, etc are all pretty good schools compared to most colleges.
Okay, my little sister goes to FSU.
November 25th, 2008 at 10:52 AM ^
Michigan and FSU .... right?
Wonder why he went with FSU?
Also, this means that he has a choice come the end of this year. Go to Oxford for the next two years on his scholarship or go to the NFL where he is expected to be a first/second round pick.
November 25th, 2008 at 11:09 AM ^
I imagine he wouldn't have applied for it if he didn't intend to forgo the NFL for a little while.
November 25th, 2008 at 10:59 AM ^
Insert raving comment about how Jim Harbaugh and the Ann Arbor News and everyone was right about Michigan brushing academics aside in the AD....here --->
November 25th, 2008 at 11:05 AM ^
I remember when he chose FSU he said that academics were a big reason why. It was laughable, and it made The Sports Guy's quote of the day (back when he had it). Either Bobby Bowden cleaned up the program (unlikely) or Myron Rolle is an exceptional person (likely).
November 25th, 2008 at 11:20 AM ^
Florida State went after him with academics first. They stressed that the most, had him meet the Provost, that sort of thing. At the time he was coming in, the had a track athlete who was up for the Rhodes (and won -- Rolle is not their first athlete to win the Rhodes) and had him meet with him.
They actually have an office to encourage/assist all students with applying for the various award scholarships (Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, etc.) and apparently that made an impression and worked in this case.
They did cover the issue of the assistant coach who bitched about Rolle studying too much, which got a lot of unflattering coverage. Bowden spun that nicely (a key athlete like that is always valuable to have around, makes his teammates better, blah blah) but also put a stop to it.
November 25th, 2008 at 11:28 AM ^
+1 They were the only school that took his interest in academics seriously.
November 26th, 2008 at 3:39 PM ^
That's a pretty big gaffe - if a kid comes in concerned about academics and you reply with "Hey, look at the Bachelors of General Studies!". Hopefully, we don't do it with Jelani Jenkins, who seems to be a similarly academically concerned kid.
November 25th, 2008 at 12:10 PM ^
Rolle did an interview with NPR a couple of weeks ago about the whole Rhodes Scholar experience. This was the week before he interviewed I think. When asked why he chose FSU, he prominently mentioned the beautiful weather. I have a feeling that he was interested in academics only so far as he was looking for someplace that would allow him to achieve his goals. Clearly he has done that and satisfied his secondary goals as well (quality of football and weather). Congratulations to him. I hope that he finds a way to balance Oxford and NFL. (Don't they play in London every year now?)
November 25th, 2008 at 1:02 PM ^
IIRC, you can do a Rhodes for one year only. My guess is he plans to take a year off from football, go to Oxford, then play in the NFL.
An impressive dude, I must say.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:13 PM ^
I think the SI write up or one of the other features mentioned that Rolle is considering going into Medicine instead of the NFL.
November 25th, 2008 at 2:56 PM ^
of Rhodes scholar-athletes. My wife teaches there, and I live in Tallahassee. It's not a highly-ranked school--I think they just slipped into the top 60 for the first time. But Tallahassee is a beautiful town--epodunk rates it ahead of Ann Arbor at #2 as the best college town in the US. It's got the best film school after UCLA, and one of the best music schools. And it's in probably the most beautiful unspoiled region of the country--twelve miles away are beaches that rival many in the Caribbean (and I know the Caribbean well; it's where I do my research).
FSU is also ranked among the best four or five schools for the dollar value--tuition is going up, but it's ridiculously cheap. One of the best things about living there, besides the amazing year-round climate (much better than the rest of Florida) is that you can see ACC basketball all winter long for stupid cheap. Can't stand Bobby Bowden though, and have never been able to bring myself to cheer for FSU, not since '91.
November 25th, 2008 at 6:31 PM ^
I'm certainly not calling you a liar, but you make a lot of claims that I don't believe without some kind of reference or citation. I have a good buddy who went to FSU and he has little god to say about it.
Also, recruits who are getting full rides likely don't care too much what school is the best bang for the buck.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:45 PM ^
Undecided. He is still not sure what career to pursue, according to his interview after the Maryland game. It really depends if his passion for medicine exceeds life in the NFL. It'll be an interesting decision.