Feb. 28, 2010

Safety Rolle needs to use his brain, not injure it

By Clark Judge | CBSSports.com Senior Writer
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INDIANAPOLIS -- We all know Florida State's Myron Rolle is smart. So why is he trying to play pro football?

Look, nothing against Rolle. I admire him. I respect him. I like him, and I like him a lot. Plus, I think he has one helluva future -- but as a neurosurgeon, not as a football player. He's a Rhodes Scholar, for crying out loud, with a future as a doctor. So start cracking the books, Myron, instead of someone's head.

I understand that playing football is a life-long passion for Rolle, and, yes, I heard him Sunday when he said playing in the NFL is a life-long dream. That's great. But sometimes you have to listen to your head, not your heart, and Myron Rolle should start paying attention. Why? Basically because he can make more of a difference as a doctor than he can as an NFL player. Myron Rolle is an extraordinary student. He is not an extraordinary safety. So use that head, Myron, and connect the dots.

"I want it," Rolle said of football. "I want it as much as anyone who's out here right now. I'm here to prove that by the way I perform in the drills, running the 40-yard dash, doing the bench press and doing everything. This is a very important time for me in this stage of my life, and I'm looking forward to stepping up to the challenge."

Then step up. Go to medical school, do your residency and get on with your life. The mind shouldn't be wasted and I hate to think what repeated blows to the head of a strong safety can do.

In Rolle's case, I don't want to know. I'd rather see him use that head to save someone's life rather than saving a spot on a 53-man roster. The guy took a year off from football because he not only valued his education but because he wanted to further it.

So now he's putting it on hold by trying to make professional football a career? Sorry, but I must have missed something.

"My first question," said CBS analyst Charley Casserly, "is why are you here? You're a Rhodes Scholar. Get on with your life. Be the guy up there running the team and owning it, not doing what you're doing."

Rolle was a solid player for three years at Florida State. He started. He made plays. He was second-team All-ACC. But he wasn't an impact player, and the numbers, please: In three years he had one interception, and that's not how you catch someone's attention.

This is: Complete your pre-med studies in two-and-a-half years and earn what might be the most prestigious postgraduate academic scholarship anywhere.

Only now he's back to resume a football career he interrupted for all the right reasons -- and, OK, so maybe he makes a team this season. Terrific. He takes on a career that damages individuals' bodies, and, yeah, if I'm an aspiring doctor I worry what happens to my head and my hands.

"When I'm done with football, which I hope is in a decade or so," Rolle said, "I want to go to medical school and practice to be a neurosurgeon. I read a book by Ben Carson, a doctor at Johns Hopkins who inspired me to want to go into neurosurgery, go to medical school, practice medicine here in the United States and take my expertise to parts of the other parts of the world -- in particular, low and middle income countries -- and help build their infrastructure by understanding the people, the culture and the customs on the ground level.

"My degree at Oxford is medical anthropology. It allows me to understand the medical and social aspects of medicine. I definitely want to be a doctor who's effective using the Westernized medicine that I learn here in the States and applying it to other parts of the world and being effective and being embraced by the culture -- not being an outsider treating people, really being one of the population of the culture and the community. That would be fascinating."

I couldn't agree more. So do it.

By Rolle's estimation it will take him 12 to 13 years to start practicing. So why not get started now? As he said, if his plan to make the NFL works he might not become a practicing physician until he's in his 40s, and this just in: The world needs more good doctors than it does football players.

When I spoke to one NFC head coach about Rolle, I asked what he thought of the guy. He started talking about his charisma, poise and smarts before I interrupted, reminding him that he was preaching to the choir.

"No, I mean, what do you think of him as a player?" I asked. "Can he make an impact?"

He didn't say anything ... which, of course, said everything.

"Let me put it this way," he finally answered. "If he hadn't have gone overseas he would have been drafted a year ago where he will be drafted in April."

And that's not high.

Myron Rolle will be drafted in April, and he might make someone's roster in September. That is what he hopes, at least, and I hope he gets what he wants. I just think it would be better if Myron Rolle went where he was appreciated and valued most.

And that's not the NFL.

"Any guy who can do what he did shows his dedication and determination," said NFL Network analyst Michael Lombardi. "But safeties that don't play a lot of man-to-man in our league right now are going to struggle. Like I said on the air the other day, when the guys asking the question aren't as smart as the guy answering them you've got a problem."