I worked at the college level for decades and saw the athletes rewarded as much as the scholars. I never did "get it" because I thought that the scholars would benefit our society more than the athlete. I still think this way. I never did tell my colleagues how I thought. It was heresy.
I think this young student athlete deserves the kudos because of his brain, not his brawn. The former will give him a better quality of life that his brawn.
Our older male P.E. teachers all wore their war wounds but they all had their M.A. degrees. THAT was more impressive to me.
Men and women collegians who become professional athletes make way too much money and almost always wind up as cripples in their forties.
I always asked my co-workers, the men, if it was worth it. Some days they said YES and some days they said NO. It depended on how much they hurt that day.
I never did “get it” because I thought that the scholars would benefit our society more than the athlete. I still think this way.
...depends on what they do with all that ‘scholarship’...if they go on to become college professors, I’ll take the athletes any day...