By BJ Bennett
SouthernPigskin.com

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Though his college accomplishments are nearly beyond compare, Myron Rolle’s true story begins now.

Coming out of the famed Hun School in Princeton, New Jersey, Myron Rolle was ranked by ESPN as the nation’s number one high school football recruit. At 6’2”, 215 pounds, Rolle was the absolute prototype; a dynamic athlete with abilities that every program in the country desired. Rolle, with unlimited options, signed with Florida State. Where to play his college football wasn’t the only choice Rolle decided to make.

Just as Rolle started to separate himself from his peers in competition, he determined that gridiron glory wouldn’t be the only dreams he would chase. As a middle-schooler, Rolle acted in class plays, played saxophone in the band and was an editor of the school newspaper. Growing stronger and taller, Rolle also grew in perspective and depth. The result was a high school senior with an academic aptitude that measured off the charts.

In 2006, Rolle was honored with the Franklin D. Watkins Memorial Trophy, a distinction awarded to African-Americans who best promote high academic standards and a commitment to community service. He was also a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, the Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society and Phi Eta Sigma.

While many young players admire accomplished athletes, Rolle’s outlook was a little more abstract. Intertwined with his own goals were the merits of one of America’s all-time great leaders.

“At Princeton there was a guy named Bill Bradley who won a Rhodes Scholarship and was an amazing athlete. I kind of looked up to him as my standard, or my paradigm, for what is supposed to be a true model for the student-athlete,” Rolle acknowledged on the Southern Pigskin Radio Network.

The measuring stick was, in the eyes of many, unreachable. Bradley was the 1965 NCAA Player of the Year for the Tiger basketball team, won a gold medal for Team USA in the 1964 Olympic Games, claimed two championships over a ten-year career with the New York Knicks, served six months in the Air Force, earned a Master’s of Arts from Oxford and served his country as a state senator for nearly two full decades.

Of such a resume, most are simply in awe; Rolle, instead, was inspired.

Success on the football field, and in the classroom, came naturally. Rolle was recognized as the ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year by the Sporting News. He became a rare true freshman to start for the Seminoles, setting the tone for a standout career at one of the top programs in all of college football. National storylines, features on a young man excelling both on-and-off the field, were a constant. For Rolle, being well-rounded was always the status-quo.

“Balancing football with my academics became routine because I did it in high school. I always knew I wanted to be a thinker and a thudder, as I used to call it, to do it on the field and in the classroom too,” he nodded. “I translated what I used everyday as a football player, preparation, hard work, teamwork, communication, taking criticism and I applied that to my life as a student and it really boded well for me and gave me a lot of success.”

A number of factors led Rolle to Florida State as the move from Princeton to the panhandle was a powerful leap of faith. As you might expect, he did his due diligence, well-aware of what four years in the state capitol could mean, also researching who and what had come before him.

“My cousin Samari went to Florida State, so I always watched FSU play and I loved Deion Sanders. I loved Coach Bowden. I loved the environment of the school, of Tallahassee,” Rolle continued. “I met Garrett Johnson, who was a Rhodes Scholar and a national champion shot-putter. He was the Student Advisory Council President and volunteered in Haiti. I thought, ‘this is exactly the guy I want to be and this is exactly what I can do at a school like FSU’.”

Seminole football afforded Rolle the chance to compete against the nation’s best. He responded appropriately, earning All-American attention as an upperclassman. In three years at Florida State, Rolle compiled 206 total tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss and 13 passes defended. Nearing the end of his junior season, Rolle had started 30 consecutive games dating back to his freshman debut. It wasn’t injury or inconsistency that kept him from the football field, rather the opportunity of a lifetime.

The famed Rhodes Scholarship, an international postgraduate endowment to the University of Oxford, had long been one of Rolle’s most important goals. His interview to ultimately study at St. Edmund Hall was set for the same day as the Seminoles’ conference finale at Maryland. Bowden, who had long been in passionate support of Rolle’s extra-curricular activites, advocated that Rolle visit with instituation representatives. The meeting was scheduled for Birmingham, the game in College Park; the distance, roughly 750 miles.

On November 22nd, 2008, Rolle accomplished one of the most remarkable feats in college football history.

With a nationally-televised game waiting later that night, Rolle interviewed for and was awarded one of the most respected scholarships in all of academia. He then took an NCAA-approved charter flight to Byrd Stadium, suiting up and joining Florida State’s game against Maryland in-progress. Rolle, having just been named one of 32 American students to receive the Rhodes Scholarship each year, then recorded two tackles against the Terrapins.

“I tried to wake up and go through my playbook and visualize what I was going to do later that evening. Then I got to my interview. I was sitting at a table with five Rhodes scholars around me,” Rolle recalled. “The judges came out a couple of hours later and said that I had won the scholarship. I put my head down, thanked my Lord, called my parents who were already in Maryland, got on a private plane, police escorted me in the stadium, my family was there and gave me hugs and the Florida State fans gave me a standing ovation.”

Rolle entered the stadium in the second quarter, soon to return to his customary position in the defensive backfield.

“I had two tackles, we won the game big 37-3. My team didn’t even really need me, we were ballin’ at that point,” Rolle remembered. “But it was just a great day, one that I will never forgot as one that truly changed the trajectory of my life.”

In addition to the rare scholastic distinction, high grades were coming from NFL scouts, with insiders suggesting Rolle could be a first or second round pick. His abilities were ideal for the next level and Rolle was on the verge of yet another grade-school aspiration coming to fruition. Two of Rolle’s extended family members had reached football’s highest level. Myron was in prime position to be next. When to do what, for a young man with a wide array of options, was proving to be quite the challenge.

“It was a very difficult choice, it really was. I went back and forth, I waffled here and there. I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” Rolle stated. “When I was six years old I started playing football and I wanted to be an NFL player. My cousins Samari and Antrel were NFL players. I went to FSU because I could be an NFL player coming from this school.”

Ultimately, Rolle decided to postpone, and potentially limit, a life-long hope of playing professional football to study at the world’s second oldest university.

“I thought, ‘I can go and make money right now and go and live out this dream of being an NFL player or I can go and immerse myself in a new culture, edify my intellectual capital, meet new people, travel and also show young people, boys, girls, black, white, rich, poor, domestic or foreign, that you can maximize your ability by choosing education over the quick money and fame of the NFL’,” Rolle continued. “So it was more of a decision of putting me in a position to be a role model and being more beneficial to others than it was for me.”

For every action, of course, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Rolle, the student and the person, was off and running; the player, however, was sidelined once again. Upon finishing his work at Oxford, Rolle turned to back to football. After being away from the game for two full years, Rolle was still selected in the NFL Draft — taken in the sixth round by the Tennessee Titans. His career spanned three years.

“I went over to Oxford, had a great time, came back and was drafted much later than I would have. I played far fewer years than I would have, but people still come up to me today and tell me that the choice I made for education over the money and the instant gratification of being a high NFL draft pick was one that inspired them and motivated them to pursue their dreams,” Rolle stated. “That’s really comforting and reassuring.”

Though his college accomplishments are nearly beyond compare, Rolle’s true story begins now. His rigorous schedule remains. This time, the measure of success isn’t just a grade point average or box score tally; it’s the number of lives impacted.

Shoulder pads for stethoscopes, Rolle currently lives in Philadelphia and is working at a children’s hospital. Among other duties, the former All-American safety is performing pediatric brain tumor research. Rolle is still relentlessly training, this time to become a neurosurgeon. A fluid list of critical medical evaluations and detailed procedures are currently all in a day’s work.

“We are looking at this pathway called the ERK pathway. So I am studying that in a lab, then the other half of the day I get to go in the operating room and assist. We have taken out a couple of brain tumors, I did a biopsy this morning. I put a shunt in, did a suture, did a couple of burn holes,” Rolle added.

The big picture is now Rolle’s playing field. His non-profit organization, by definition, supports the health, wellness and education of children and families in need around the world. Bowden is one of Rolle’s board of directors.

“My goals include being a pediatric neurosurgeon, continuing to grow my own foundation. We do a lot with foster children and with Native Americans, as well as back home in the Bahamas, building a free health clinic there. I just want to be a good person, a good leader, have a family, just make a difference,” Rolle concluded. “I can’t make any interceptions anymore, but hopefully I can do some things that can help people along their way.”

Told time and time again, the tale remains one of staggering personal achievement. What Rolle has done is remarkable. The power of his story is why.