Off Base With Ryan Gorcey ... Hard Rhode To Travel

On Saturday, Nov. 22, Florida State safety Myron Rolle interviewed for the Rhodes Scholarship in Birmingham, AL. Like so many tests he has taken in his academic career, he aced it.  One of 32 individuals in the world to do so. He then boarded a chartered jet – NCAA-approved, of course – to College Park, MD, where he went on to play in the second half of the Seminoles’ 37-3 ACC win over Maryland. He made three tackles.

A 6-foot-2, 215-pound safety, Rolle is a potential early-round NFL talent. But he’s also all-world in the brains department.

But, as so many comic book films are wont to preach, with this great power, both physical and mental, now comes a hefty responsibility. Now, Rolle has a choice to make, one that has been placed upon very few shoulders: Does he take his chances in the NFL draft, with all of the potential millions that he could make over a professional career?  Or does he use the Rhodes Scholarship go to Oxford and pursue his dream of becoming – wait for it – a neurosurgeon?

There are strong arguments on both sides, arguments which Rolle says that he and his family are weighing heavily. On the one hand, Rolle could pursue the same path as Dikembe Mutombo – who, as a Georgetown grad and one-time aspiring doctor himself, is no intellectual slouch. Mutombo used the millions he made in the NBA to build a state-of-the-art hospital in his native Democratic Republic of Congo, and is renowned for his humanitarian aid and philanthropic ventures. Whole staffs of doctors can make a greater difference than one, can’t they?

But then one has to consider the rare individual that Rolle is off of the football field. He graduated pre-med from Florida State in two and a half years. As a football player. With a 3.75 GPA. That’s hard enough for a normal student to do. With a coconut like that under his helmet, Rolle has the potential to make the kinds of breakthroughs that could make a difference not only to the thousands who are helped by Mutombo’s philanthropic ventures, but to millions around the world.

So who should young Mr. Rolle turn to for advice? Surely the family that has always put academics first is a good start. But perhaps one of sport’s most celebrated everymen has something to say about the situation too. So what’s the diagnosis, Doc Graham?

Yes, Archibald Wright “Moonlight” Graham, that Ghost of Field-of-Dreams Past. The young right fielder that played in a single major league game for the New York Giants on June 29, 1905, and never got to bat. After that one moment in the sun, he played two more years in the minor leagues before going to the University of Maryland (he completed his undergrad work at North Carolina), the same school against which Rolle played last week, he served the city of Chisolm, MN for 50 years as a doctor.

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