NFL: Myron Rolle - Scholar, Sportsman, Chosen One?

With attention turning to the 2010 NFL draft, college footballer Myron Rolle has been getting increasing attention in the American sports media, and he is profiled in this fascinating article courtesy of ESPN.

The draft, where the teams take their pick of the best young talent from the college game, is the culmination of a ruthless process which leaves no stone unturned in the assessment of the student athletes pursuing their NFL dreams. Through the NFL Combine, where the top prospects are worked out and interviewed for the scouts; the pro days held by the major colleges, offering largely the same process; the video analysis; personal visits with interested teams; and endless media speculation, the hopefuls will have their lives dissected by franchises who want to be absolutely sure they are choosing the right candidate for the multi-million dollar contracts on offer.


Rolle (left) intercepting a pass for Florida State

Rolle will attend this year's combine, and the scouts will have video footage of three seasons of football at Florida State, one of the biggest and best college football programmes in the country. They won't have much footage of his fourth season though, apart from an appearance in the Senior Bowl, an end of season all star game, but they will have plenty to discuss in his interviews, because Rolle gave up his 2009 season at Florida State to study at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. This was no small decision, the defensive back was already a college star being tipped as a high draft choice, and putting those ambitions on hold for a year was a gamble, as there was the risk of losing his status to the next wave of players, all of whom would have recent playing time and no rustiness.



Professional football is only one of Rolle's ambitions though, alongside a medical degree and an eventual career as a neurosurgeon. As the ESPN article shows, everyone he comes into contact with seems to invest a new set of hopes in him, whether in the fields of medicine, science, politics or something else. For him it seems, football is not the be all and end all, although that is not to say that he does not take it seriously, as the preparation work he has put in shows. There is also scope for crossover, with concussion being a hotly debated topic in the game at the moment, he has co-designed a helmet that reduces the risk of head injuries.

Rolle appears to have the potential to be a genuinely successful polymath, and takes his status as a role model very seriously, but with such great expectation comes the pressure to live up to it. One hopes that he can successfully balance all his commitments, and find a way to achieve his goals, rather than those other people have in mind for him. First among those goals is being drafted and establishing himself as an NFL player. After that, anything seems possible.