Admittedly I am a product of Miami public schools. Your expectations therefore of my cognitive capabilities cannot be too low. And did I mention it took me seven years to earn my developmental psychology master’s, typically a two-year degree? The other day someone told me that “gullible” is the only word that isn’t in the dictionary. Turns out I was naive, shouldn’t have had to look it up.
Maybe my imperfect education is the reason I can’t make head or tale of this article. Which I will summarize as follows: some Super Bowl players attended colleges that are well-known for football. And some athletes did not.
“A quick scan of the Chiefs’ roster reveals a mix of powerhouse programs and lesser-known schools. While schools like the University of Florida and Oklahoma are well-represented on the team, there are also players who hail from schools associated less often with the NFL such as the University of South Dakota (Jack Cochrane and Chris Oladokun) and Samford (Montrell Washington).”
No one is more sensitive than I to the stress of needing to write articles on deadline. As it happens, this is my 700th consecutive Tuesday Blog. But what exactly is the point of this article? Patrick Mahomes made it to the NFL because he attended Texas Tech? Whereas Sebastian Gutierrez started for San Francisco although he played college ball at Minot State?
Sebastian Gutierrez is six feet six inches tall; he weighs 308 pounds. Had Sebastian Gutierrez attended Texas Tech rather than Minot State would the Red Raiders have fed him more? Had Sebastian Gutierrez matriculated at Texas Tech rather than Minot State would he be seven foot six inches tall and weigh 408 pounds?
The implications are staggeringly silly. Had Sebastian Gutierrez gone to an even less well-known football school would he have ended up at five feet six inches tall, 208 pounds and taken up ballet? (No, I don’t know why they just don’t get taller dancers either.)
Here’s the deal: Harvard doesn’t only produce good students, it collects them. Notre Dame doesn’t only produce good football players, it collects them.
William Daniel Phillips attended Juniata College in Huntington, Pennsylvania. Had Bill been an undergraduate at Harvard or Stanford instead, would he have two Noble Prizes in physics? Again, I have trouble counting past ten with my shoes on, but a Nobel Prize in physics seems like a big deal to me. There have been 224 folks who have won the Nobel Prize in physics. I don’t have any of them.
Focus on helping your children obtain the skills they need in the classroom and on the athletic field. Whether they end up playing in the Super Bowl with Sebastian Gutierrez or getting a Nobel Prize in physics like William Daniel Phillips, it won’t matter so much where they go to college. Because who you are makes more difference than where you go. Even somebody who took seven years to earn a graduate degree can assure you of that.
