Good column here from ESPN.com’s Ivan Maisel about Patrick Witt’s decision to leave behind potential glory as the starting quarterback at football-mad Nebraska in favor of Yale and potential glory years after his playing career is over. A snippet:
Witt arrived at Nebraska in 2007 with 15 AP credits. He found a locker room, he said, where he heard the refrain “C’s get degrees.” He saw Nebraska players who graduated in 2008 struggle to find the kind of job that might appeal to him. He knew his brother Jeff, a quarterback whose Harvard career ended in 2006 with a shoulder injury, would graduate in the spring and head to a job in the financial sector in New York. …
What Witt wanted is the vibrant academic atmosphere he has found at Yale in classes such as “Political Philosophy of Abraham Lincoln” and “Comparative Welfare Policy in Developing Countries.” He wanted a locker room where the level of humor rose above towel-snapping. Girls are a topic of conversation, but so is health care.
“People would look at me as if I had three heads if I brought that up in the locker room out there,” Witt said of the latter. “And it’s not like we’re discussing these things all the time in the Yale locker room. … You can be talking about football one minute and launch into a debate about politics the next.”
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What Patrick describes is the difference between a football power competing in the FBS vs. an Ivy League school competing in the FCS. I’m surprised that he’s suprised. If memory serves, his family moved across the country to get him to a better high school football program so he could be recruited by a big-time college program.
As a Nebraska grad, I can say there are some fine programs there for a big public university. Yes, they do care about Big Red football. But you can also find lively discussions about politics and history, among other things.
Of course, many of the football players are not subjected to anything academically rigorous, any more than they would be at OU, UT, Michigan or USC, for that matter.
It’s great that Patrick has found a home in New Haven. With Zac Lee and Cody Green in Lincoln, Patrick may not have started at Nebraska, but he will definitely emerge a winner at Yale.
To be clear, I second what Rex says in the third paragraph. Even the smallest FBS schools are football factories, moving players through without even a nod toward a usable degree. Patrick could have started his college journey anywhere. Just happens to be Nebraska.
Patrick and his family lived three houses down from me while they were in Wylie. Let me tell you this kid is the real deal. One of the most polite, down-to-earth and well-read kids that I’ve ever met. Not to mention he almost obliterated my hands when I played catch with him. His parents are great people too, and I wish him and his family all the best.
So, Ivy Leaguers are snobs? That’s ground-breaking stuff.