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Originally posted by RecRef
 If it were just so easy. People just want their gladiatorsÂ…
The wife, through her sister, is a good friend of the mother of Robert Smith, X of Ohio State and the Vikings. While sitting out his sophomore year because had class conflicts with some practices he was branded a traitor to the school by both the public and the coaching staff. A member of which told him that he has to drop the classes.
Came his senior year and he again had conflicts with classes and some practices. The coach told him that he had to play football and that he had to drop classes. If he did so he would not have been able to graduate in 4 years. So, he took the coaches advice to the extreme and dropped OSU and turned pro. Again the public vilified him. (The Vikings were happy to send him to school in the off season.) The last I heard he was applying to medical school.
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Some of the most successful people in this country are former atheletes. Robert Smith one way or another made a choice to be an athelete. If he had such a problem with the structure of his time at Ohio State, then he should have stayed out of it like he did before. I for one would have applauded him for it. If the system was against his academic goals, then he had a choice to make. He has made a choice to get out when he did, good for him.
Look, I come from an educated family. I grew up in a family that never allowed me to think of just sports. If I did not do my school work, I would not play, regardless of what a coach thought. As an African-American (which many of these atheletes are), I think these families are not putting education first and only looking at the brass ring. You have to have balance. From an Officiating stand point, I saw a kid that was a wonderful leader on the field. I told that kid "I love the way you handle yourself on this field, but if I do not hear from you as a good student, none of this athletic achievement is going to matter." I went on to say to this kid, "this sports day will one day end, you need something else to do after that." We have not set the bar high enough. There was a time when kids of color used athletics to just get an education. Now they go to college to make millions in the pros. Not everyone is going to be 7 feet tall. And even one of those kids that came from HS did not get drafted.
Peace