Dear NFL
How many NFL players can say they've been to (or even know) Stonehenge??
You would think that Myron Rolle, the NFL super-stud who also happens to be a Rhodes Scholar, would be the kind of man who makes us proud. You would expect that his status as being the man who represents the future of the black athlete in America would make the NFL happy to have him on the roster of one of their teams. Not only is Rolle brilliant, but he is also tough as nails and fast as lightning. The man has the whole package. But at least according to some NFL coaches, Rolle may not be committed enough to be a part of their league.
"We'll have to find out how committed he is," an NFC assistant coach said, repeating the sentiment of five other NFL officials who said the same thing.
Trainer Tom Shaw, who worked with Rolle over the past year, finds the criticism to be almost silly. Shaw has trained guys like Peyton Mannin and Deion Sanders, along with 118 former first-round draft picks and NFL MVPs. He argues that the critique against Rolle shows ignorance.
"I hear all the negative things that he has too many things going on in his life," Shaw (his trainer) said. "But if [the NFL] is saying that Myron Rolle is a bad example, that's a joke. ... Myron is what you want all these kids to be. Every one of these kids should want to be Myron Rolle. "The reason I say he's going to be a 10-year veteran is he's a guy who is going to out-work everybody. He's not just going to rest on his athletic ability."
"When coaches ask you what's important in your life, usually you can get away with saying God, then family, then football. But a lot of coaches out there want to hear football, then God, then family."
It's a sad day in society when we begin to value a person's time in the 40-yard-dash or their vertical more so than their overall intelligence and aptitude to do more for humanity than chase around a pigskin ball. Unfortunately, that is indeed the case in the NFL, where under the guise of 'making the team better', your scouts are trying to downplay intellect as lack of loyalty. Every year, prior to the NFL Draft, you administer the Wonderlic exam, which tests every potential draftee's intelligence, and their aptitude for problem solving. Most players end up around the late teens and twenties (a perfect score is 50), with safeties clocking in at 19. That said, should Myron Rolle have even had to take the exam? I mean, the guy is a freaking Rhodes Scholar!!! He's hobknobbing with the brightest minds in our age, and representing black male athletes in the way they ought to be; not dumb lumps of muscle, but intelligent human beings with interests outside of football.
By criticizing Rolle and his 'committment', NFL, you're coming outright in saying that you'd rather have a fast idiot on the field than a faster genius. While his interests outside of football may cause conflict with the rigors of being an NFL player, has Myron Rolle disappointed at all? For God's sake, the guy had a Rhodes interview in Alabama on the same day as a game in Maryland, aced the interview, then got back to Maryland for the second half of the game (which they won). Rolle's been holding up both sides of the title student-athlete since high school, so why would he start half-stepping now that he's being considered for the NFL and has the most prestigious fellowship in the world? NFL, it doesn't make sense to ostracize one of the best role models to step into the NFL conversation. Lord knows with that neuroscience degree he'll probably be putting a stop to all the concussion problems you've been having lately...