01-30-2017, 02:18 PM
(01-30-2017, 01:18 PM)Speedy Thomas Wrote: Yes, I think it speaks to the difficulty of predicting success. We are talking about 18 year old kids -- children, really. Not only are college coaches trying to figure out how they will mature physically, but socially. And let's don't forget that football is the ultimate team sport. How are they going to fit within our system? How are they going to mesh with my team? How are they going to behave when they are away from home for the first time in their lives? How are they going to choose responsible mentors and true friends, not people who just want to take advantage of their celebrity?
But I don't think the message of the article is the folly of playing football. Some of the guys who didn't make the NFL used football to get an education and make something of themselves. The folly is looking at high school and college football as a way to get to the NFL, rather than the means to get an education. That's where mentoring -- be it from parents, coaches, or others -- can help these kids keep some perspective.
Good take, and your second paragraph raises the legitimate question should football ability (or any athletic ability) be a means to an education? Well, since the schools make billions of the child labor they exploit, arguably, but wouldn't it be more honest to pay them for their wealth generating labor? (I know, not in serf nation USA...) Then things like scholastic achievement could be means to a college education (and certainly many football players do make the grades to earn academic scholarships).
JOHN ROBERTS: From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly so that you will come to know the value of justice... I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either.
