A New Perspective on Student-Athletes

I realized this a bit when I started college. I almost wet myself just thinking about having to make an accurate pass in front of 100,000 people.

I'm 25 so I officially think that soon I will need to call them 'kids' as well.  I'm still holding on to the fact that even though I out-age everyone on the Michigan squad, I still have Weinke.  Next year, I will officially be too old for that whole walk-on turned star quarterback pipe dream.  At least I have a year...

Haha but yeah, they're kids.  At their age, I was still trying to walk through drive-thru's drunk and 'hey dude' it at the local 7-11... it's funny what 6-7 years will do for you.

When I transitioned from undergrad to grad student in Ann Arbor... whole lot of things changed at that time, including the realization at the first football game that year that I was older than every player on the roster... weird feeling.... didn't change the fact I cussed my throat sore at the hockey game a few weeks later (in fact, I think being a grad student at the hockey games somehow gives you more gravitas in leading the chants)

I used to get so pissed off at a player, the team, etc.  You know the type - asshole.  Embarrassment.  Jerk... 

Then I started to remember that these are just 17 to 22 year old kids trying their best, and I became a fan again.

Still get frustrated, but I am much calmer knowing that they're JUST KIDS.

Yeah - I get it.  

ps - Congrats to your son on getting into Virginia Tech and good luck to him.  Give him a hearty "Go Blue" from your friends at MGoBlog!!!

It's pretty crazy coming to terms with that fact.  This last semester I found out that one of my students was a low-level recruit and it was really an eye-opener.  He's such a....kid.

I dunno.  College actually sort of made me think the opposite.  Oh, sure, looking back on college I can see in how many ways I was pretty immature about things, but I also remember reading this same kind of "they're-just-kids" thing back then and not agreeing.  Granted, the only college sports I ever played were of the intramural variety and not in front of tens or hundreds of thousands of people.  But I remember thinking that your average 19- or 20-year-old, especially the football type, isn't likely to ever admit he needs or wants to be sheltered from the pressure.  I mean, they don't exactly seem to be scarred for life.

I do draw certain lines: I loved heckling as much as any college student, but now as someone who's theoretically and technically a grown-up it's probably not appropriate for me to heckle a college kid.  But I don't feel a conscience pang for sometimes not cutting them enough slack on the Internetz because of their age. 

Besides, in so many other arenas, whenever it's convenient it's argued that the players are big boys and grown-ups: for example, the playoff argument, even though losing a playoff game is typically when they show the most emotion.

It's still hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that a lot of these guys were born in the 1990s. 

I just can't believe that Tate and Shoelace had to put an entire Athletic Department on their shoulders last September as freshman. Looking back on my college career there is no way that I would have been prepared for that at 18. I was not even close to mature enough at that time. When I joined the golf team, it was still 3 years before I could drink an adult beverage legally. To think that someone that age was given the responsibility to lead 85 other guys is overwhelming to imagine. Especially here. This is the University of Michigan Football program - the team with the most wins and tradition in history.  We have raised our own bar here. The expectations are that much higher. I know both players had seniors and leaders in other positions to look to for guidance, but to think about the burden they faced really puts a lot in perspective. I am a competitor now and I was a competitor then, and I am sure both would say they enjoyed the challenge of leading the team last year but the pressure must have been just excruciating. Although in some ways  I doubt whether athletes can fully comprehend or be aware of how important their role is to a team, a university and a fan base at that age. It is difficult to step away from the present in order to comprehend its significance.

I'm about to begin my junior year of college, and it's been hitting me since about last year. I realized that Tate and Denard were the year below me (although they're both older than I am), and I was looking at them in the exact same way that I had been looking at Michigan football players my whole life-people who exist only on Saturday from 12-3PM, people who are far more experienced than me, people who are hardly even people, really: they were always a different species. I realized that, not only were Tate and Denard that young, but Woodson and Brady and Braylon and Henne had all been that young around the time I started paying attention to them. It's been a startling year-and-a-half-long revelation.

Additionally, last year, when Denard threw the last INT against Iowa, he crumpled into some OL's (Moosman's?) arms. He didn't look just sad; he looked absolutely in anguish, like he was going to burst out crying on the field and was doing everything he could to keep it in.

Finally, I think one time on WLA or Genuinely Sarcastic or something it was posted that Stevie Brown was shaking in an interview on Rivals cause he was so nervous to be on camera. I have never felt like a more reprehensible person. I know there's the argument that, you know, athletes want the attention and don't want to be sheltered and all that. But since then, it's been really difficult for me to get too mad at a player. I can still be disappointed by the results of games, but it's difficult for me to think, "Damn it, Denard!" or anything in that vein.

As soon as I graduated from UM, it gave me an entirely new perspective.  The first point in my life as a fan where every kid I'm watching play is younger than me.  It hit me as a student as the stars on the gridiron were sitting next to me in class, but once I graduated...  18 year olds, 20 year olds start looking quite young.  That's all these guys are.

It's a pretty healthy perspective to have, honestly. 

It is weird. They are kids and in reality, most will be for awhile even after they graduate. It's one of the many reasons I love college sports.

Zoltan Mesko is 23, but seems far more mature than his age while Morgan Trent is 24.  When Morgan opened his mouth earlier regarding RR, I dismissed it as the typical foot-in-mouth syndrome of someone his age.

However, I now expect Lebron James to have all of this free agent stuff figured out and to have all of his professional ducks in a row. King James is only 25! ans so is Reggie Bush. They seem like veterans at this point, and they are.

Braylon and Avant are 27.

Woodson is only 33 and A-Rod is 34,  as is Jay Feely.  Biakabatuka is 36. Shaq is 38.

Ken Griffey Jr. retired at 40. Desmond is 40 as well, while Rich Rod is only 45 and Michael Jordan is 47.

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I'm not sure what any of this means, but perhaps it just means that an aging sports fans' perspective seems to always change. As a parent with a college age kid of your own, I would assume your perspective would start to be a little surreal.

Since I'm only a junior in hs, the michigan athletes still have a few years on me, but not for long. Now I'm beginning to realize how ridiculous it is when people criticize these young guys. I

As a soon-to-be college freshman, I can say that I would be scared shitless of playing college football. I can't imagine what it'd be like to start in front of 110,000 fans like Tate did.

when I read about an 18 year-old "man" and I think "18 is not a man! Hell 22 is not a man! That is still a kid, son."