Putting the Student Before the Athlete

Michael Wilbon:

I’m dropping the pretense of having no rooting interest this week. I’m rooting for Myron Rolle as if he’s a blood relative. I’m rooting for his flight from Birmingham, Ala., to Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport to be on time. I’m rooting for him to make it to Byrd Stadium by halftime at the very latest, for him to get into uniform and play as many snaps as possible for Florida State. Most of all, I’m rooting for him to wow the panelists in his Rhodes Scholarship interview earlier in the day.
Texas Tech and Oklahoma will get the majority of the college football attention this weekend, but Rolle is the best story. He’s not the first football player up for one of 32 Rhodes Scholarships. In fact, a Yale defensive back, Casey Gerald, will be in Houston today as one of 13 region finalists. But while Yale is as much a part of college football’s history as Florida State, let nobody suggest that the football pressures in the Ivy League match those at a school such as Florida State, where Rolle’s defensive coordinator once suggested the kid might be devoting too much time to academics and not enough to football.