Future College Football Star Steers Toward Academics
Posted on June 30, 2008
Filed Under News, Off The Bench | By Dan Mesure
Over the past few years, football players have gotten a bad rap, from pros like Pacman Jones and Mike Vick, on down to numerous collegiate players throwing their futures away with criminal offenses. NCAA football players are often criticized for being spoon-fed their education, and many times, (not all) these complaints have merit. However, highly recruited high-school defensive tackle Jamarkus McFarland is another story. As The New York Times reports:
“I want people to know I’m more than a football player,” McFarland said. “I’ve got what I wanted as far as being able to go to college with it paid for. Football is an extra. It’s a bonus. I’m not going to college to play football. I’m going to college to get what I’m going to need for life regardless of whether I make the NFL or not.”
McFarland is by no means the only football player who feels this way, but with media concentrating on the screw-ups in pro and collegiate football, it’s good to remember that the players who sell drugs, beat up strippers, or various other destructive acts, are the exception in football.
McFarland, who is being recruited by many schools, will make a great face for whichever university he chooses. Hopefully he will stick to his word and stay in school all four years, and not get caught up in the NFL draft hype. Among the colleges the future kinesiology major is considering are LSU, Oklahoma, and Texas.
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