Great story on Myron Rolle over on Black Voices today. Rolle, a standout safety at Florida State was recently drafted by the Tennessee Titans after taking a year away from football for a Rhodes Scholarship
Myron Rolle graduated from Florida State in two and a half years with a 3.75 GPA. While he showed true talent on the football field, and recently became a sixth-round draft pick, it's the athlete's academic prowess that is also winning him praise.
Rolle belongs to a very elite group, especially for African Americans. He's a Rhodes Scholar — an intellectual standout who has performed at the highest academic level.
Rolle's dream is to practice medicine. He was so devoted to this goal that he spent the 2009 football season studying overseas. (The handful of young men and women selected each year to become Rhodes Scholars receive a scholarship to go to England and study at Oxford University).
Some have questioned Rolle's commitment to the sport after taking a year to study. His response?
"That's been a popular question that I've received here," Rolle said in an interview. "My answer to them, which is a genuine and truthful answer, is that I think my pursuits academically have helped me in football. You learn discipline, you learn time management, you learn structure, you learn organization and as a football player those are obviously valuable assets and traits you can use to be great whether in film studies or on the field. I tell them I want to transform all of the positive traits I've learned in the classroom by the pinnacle of academic achievement, the Rhodes scholarship, and become an even better football player by it.''