SIAP: Michigan Daily looks at life after football
http://michigandaily.com/sports/life-after-football-struggles-after-pla…
I searched and didn't find this posted already. If it has been, mods feel free to close it up.
I think this is just sad and scary. Some players will get 4 years of stardom, fizzle out, and have few tradeable skills. Sounds like Floyd had enough to get somewhere, but not where he wanted. I worry about the names on our roster who are seeing a lot of playing time but are not draft stock.
I have even worried about Denard. Everyone keeps singing his praises, but I find it doubtful that he will have success at QB at the next level. I could see him having success in another position but not QB and I worry that he may pigeon-hole himself as a QB.
November 21st, 2012 at 10:53 PM ^
Honest, non snarky question. Why the concern for athletes but not for other students at the same University?
November 21st, 2012 at 11:02 PM ^
November 21st, 2012 at 11:04 PM ^
Higher profiles - we know the names and faces of these young men but not of other students. That plus the fact that it's a real concern - for many D-1 football players, football is all they have. If they don't make it, what else can they realistically do? The students can go to the Career Center and figure their stuff out, but I think a lot of football players figure that football IS their career until proven otherwise.
November 21st, 2012 at 11:44 PM ^
They can do what any other student can do - get a job. You just have to study and get decent grades. The rest usually works itself out if your degree reads UM and you have decent grades.
November 21st, 2012 at 11:46 PM ^
Yes, and Chris Floyd had one. He quit that job and moved back to Ann Arbor, under the impression that he was getting his dream job, and then once he got into that job, it was taken out from under his feet.
November 22nd, 2012 at 3:28 AM ^
November 22nd, 2012 at 10:53 AM ^
Yeah, it sounds like Floyd was a little too optimistic about his job chances. It's good to have self-confidence, but in this economy nothing is for sure until it's down in writing.
November 22nd, 2012 at 12:53 AM ^
This is a very easy argument to make when the entire nation isn't watching you every Saturday. But when they are, I imagine it's very easy to become wrapped up in it and let other things fall to the side. I had a class with a football player - who is presently on our team - who seemed intent on playing professionally, but he's not even a starter.
And sure, a UM degree is worth something, but I think we're overstating the significance of the name. It's still hard for a humanities/social sciences major to find a job. Professional degrees? No problem. English majors? Sociology? Psychology? Not always so simple.
November 22nd, 2012 at 2:39 AM ^
It takes hard work to be successful.
November 22nd, 2012 at 3:26 AM ^
November 22nd, 2012 at 8:53 PM ^
And now you neglect the mantra of high schools, colleges, and many parents: Do what you love. Be happy, be fulfilled, by doing what you love.
If your love is unmarketable, whose fault now?
My community never, ever stressed "marketable" majors. They never talked about who makes money. They only mentioned fulfillment and happiness. There was little consideration for the fact that a person is not defined by their chosen career path. The proper paradigm is to work in what you're good at and do what you love. But that is not how many kids are counseled in high school and even in college.
November 22nd, 2012 at 10:13 AM ^
I have two degrees and I work as a stockkeeper at UMHS. Yeah, I don't like the job, but at least I have a steady job. In my 19 years in the labor force I have never been without a job.
Depending on your dilligance and ambition you can increase your earning power by using such a job as a springboard to something else. Whether through connections made at work or through use of the various further education programs one advance fairly easily from such a position.
My grandfather went from being an auto worker and taxi driver to helping Mike Illitch build Little Ceasers into a highly successful pizza chain. This with a 10th grade education.
As a result I have no sympathy for Floyd or any of these guys because they have advantages most of us have not received. I appreciate their efforts at UM, but it offends me that they expect to be given jobs because they played for Michigan. As if the free education and connections were not enough.
November 21st, 2012 at 11:23 PM ^
Because scholarship athletes are generally less intelligent and have fewer marketable "real-world" skills than the average University of Michigan student.
November 22nd, 2012 at 12:00 AM ^
Really?
November 22nd, 2012 at 12:29 AM ^
Less inteligent was probably a step too far (see Brians post about football inteligence). There is some profound truth to this however in that football players tend to discount academic endevors believing that thier future lies in making millions from "the show".
Spelling disclaimer: 12:30am and extreemly intoxicated.
November 22nd, 2012 at 12:40 AM ^
November 22nd, 2012 at 10:35 AM ^
November 22nd, 2012 at 12:13 AM ^
Well for me anyways it's because I havent spent a shit-ton of money to buy tickets to watch the other students study and take classes (I did that myself) and I don't know their names or their respective backstories. If I did I'd probably care a lot more about them.
Familiarity doesnt just breed contempt. It also breeds empathy.
November 22nd, 2012 at 2:52 AM ^
So they're like old friends you hear about after a few years of losing track. And you care.
November 22nd, 2012 at 10:32 AM ^
In case you haven't noticed, this is a sports blog. Also, just because someone writes an article on what happens to our heroes after the are finished with football doesn't mean that they aren't concerned with anyone else. In addition, I'm guessing literature isn't your "cup of tea," or you would appreciate the classic situation of a hero struggling after his heroic deeds have been completed.
When people are on our TV sets and the University makes millions of dollars off of their efforts, and they can't find jobs a few years later, it is definitely worth our concern.
November 22nd, 2012 at 10:48 AM ^
You're wrong, actually. I love literature. When I was younger and was asked to submit such things, my Christmas/birthday wish list typically consisted of a bunch of books. Thing is though that I disagree strongly that sports figures are heroes or that their actions are heroic. They are entertainers. I enjoy watching football as a diversion, but some of you take that to rather extreme levels and practically deify people because they can run fast. (I wasn't initially going to respond in this thread to anyone, but you pissed me off for suggesting that I wasn't well read, and because yours was the only hostile response I received)
November 21st, 2012 at 11:02 PM ^
November 21st, 2012 at 11:15 PM ^
This seems like a piece on the department stringing along a great addition to the staff, then screwing him over in the end for nonsensical reasons.
November 22nd, 2012 at 12:14 AM ^
Nonsensical reasons like losing out to a better qualified candidate?
November 22nd, 2012 at 2:55 AM ^
November 21st, 2012 at 11:20 PM ^
November 22nd, 2012 at 12:27 AM ^
"Except for the degree"
Really? I teach kids whose parents are begging to fork over $100,000 to UM if their little angel is given the priviledge of being accepted.
A Michigan degree is worth far more than 99.6% of student-athletes bring in for the school (and that money goes right back to the athletic department and other student-athletes).
November 22nd, 2012 at 5:22 AM ^
November 22nd, 2012 at 5:39 AM ^
November 21st, 2012 at 11:48 PM ^
With a role model in coaching like Hoke, who does things the right way (like other football coaches in the past), there is a reason so many of our football alumni who didn't have the best pro careers become coaches.
November 22nd, 2012 at 12:22 AM ^
I know this discussion has been had in the past, but it's Chris Floyd's fault, and nobody elses, for moving before he was given an official job offer.
I mean, really, who does something like that?
I struggle to take anything he says seriously when he still cries sour grapes about that.
November 22nd, 2012 at 12:40 AM ^
I don't particularly care for this line:
But it must incorporate better support for inner-city and minority student athletes, many of whom are left feeling disillusioned by a university with seemingly no regard for how we’ll get by when they’re done with us.
There is a bit of self-responsibility that is needed. We all grow up. The majority of his reply recognizes that, but it still does not recognize that the University of Michigan doesn't owe us anything when we graduate. In fact, all U of M does is ask me for money since I've graduated. You go to school to get an education and what you do with that education is on you and no one else.
November 22nd, 2012 at 12:58 AM ^
It's a rough and tumble world out there for everyone... I know many students who've recieved degrees in architecture, Chinese, and German from Michigan and Michigan state and they're all either working odd-jobs not related to their degree or back in school for engineering, or pharmacy. Athletes run a higher risk of these kinds of situation since they're generally in less-desirable/employable "easier" degree programs than engineering, business, or medical (which are three that tend to give graduates their pick of job offers, rather than the jobs getting their pick of the graduates).
It sounds to me like Chris Floyd was doing just fine before making a less-than-perfect decision to come back to Ann Arbor without an official job offer. None of us know what was said in his interview(s), and they might've pretty much handed him the job on-the-spot for all we know. It doesn't change that his move was a bit premature.
From what I've gathered in other articles and the comments of anyone who claims to know the man we're fortunate to have him back in Ann Arbor and I wish him nothing but the best. It sounds like he's passonate about giving back to the University and thought he had the perfect way to do so lined up, only to pull the trigger and discover that he didn't... It's still his fault, but he doesn't seem like someone who's wallowing; he'll dig out. Maybe he'll find a different position in the athletic department; maybe not. Regardless I'm sure he doesn't need the advice or judgement of us to find his niche; though a little support wouldn't hurt.
Best of luck to Chris. Go Blue!
November 22nd, 2012 at 8:40 AM ^
...I find it very hard to empathise with the athletes because at least they graduate debt free. Without having that financial burden, they are in much better position to chase after the many low-paying and/or volunteer opportunities that many industries require to get a foot in the door.
Although I'm sure it can be difficult for athletes after graduation, at least they aren't getting billed for their past four years.
November 22nd, 2012 at 9:14 AM ^
“I don’t mean to be contradicting myself, but there’s got to be something that could’ve been done to open our eyes about X-Y-Z.” - Sam Sword, from the article
For as many programs as there are (now including M-PACT) to help with career transition and offer career services, the onus is typically still on the person wanting the help to get that support. Unless something had been mandated by Carr as a requirement of being on the team, as Hoke has made M-PACT, then all the school could realistically do is tell players about the support available to them in this regard - programs, classes, and the like.
That being said, I am not sure if there was quite the awareness of this phenomenon in the 1990s when Sword played, so the relative level of sensitivity to post-football career planning seems like it may have been substantially less at that point in time. To me, that would be much like how there were virtually no financial planning and budgeting courses beind taught for the individual consumer in the 1990s, but there is a variety of such classes now. It simply was not a problem in the general consciousness at the time. Sword may be wondering about something now that few wondered about then.
November 22nd, 2012 at 9:40 AM ^
So let me get this straight. Chris Floyd has a job working for the Department of Defense. Then he sees a job in Ann Arbor for Athletics that he wants to apply for. So his logic states that in order to apply for this job, he has to quit and move to Ann Arbor?
And when he doesn't get it, he rips apart the University on Twitter (which we had a rather lively conversation about here when it happened). And now he's whining to the Daily about it.
Something tells me there's more to this story. And if Chris Floyd ever thought he'd have a job in the AD, he should probably stop thinking that right about now.
November 22nd, 2012 at 10:06 AM ^
Personally, I don't really buy Floyd's story, but it does open an interesting conversation which is the one I wanted to have here.
November 22nd, 2012 at 9:57 AM ^
November 22nd, 2012 at 10:29 AM ^
Anyone else notice the glaring errors on the captions to the photos in that article. Who edits these things?
November 22nd, 2012 at 11:03 AM ^
It's a student newspaper, edited by students who also are going to class full-time. You have to cut them some slack.
November 22nd, 2012 at 12:45 PM ^
The Daily has a better standard than that, especially Daily Sports. This is something they should get right.
November 22nd, 2012 at 1:14 PM ^