When profiling Florida State’s extraordinary Myron Rolle, a student-athlete with such enormous reach and resolve, it is almost impossible to avoid the obvious phrase: Rolle Model.
After all, he is the perfect role model for today’s classroom student and athletic star.
The NCAA should sign him to a post-eligibility contract now, allowing his story to be rolled out to every prospective athlete who holds hope of attending a university to participate in sports.
“He’s the poster boy for what you’d like a college student-athlete to be,” says Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden. “If all of your players were like him, coaches wouldn’t have a lot of worries. I haven’t had many like him.”
Fittingly, Rolle is on the Watch List for the fifth annual Lott Trophy
Named after Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott, The Lott Trophy is awarded to college football’s Defensive IMPACT Player of the Year. The Lott Trophy is the first college football award to equally recognize athletic performance and the personal character attributes of the player.
Sponsored by The Pacific Club IMPACT Foundation, the award is given to a player who exhibits the same characteristics Lott embodied during his distinguished career: Integrity, Maturity, Performance, Academics, Community and Tenacity.
The winner will be announced at the annual black-tie gala in December at The Pacific Club in Newport Beach, Ca.
Rolle figures to be one of the favorites for the award.
To put it simply 21-year-old Rolle is breathtaking and a stunning example of all that can be good in intercollegiate sports.
*He graduated from high school a semester early. Besides being a two-sport star and a whiz in the classroom, Rolle played the lead in the musical “Fiddler on the Roof”.
*At Florida State, he’s majoring in exercise sciences; has stated that his goal is to attend medical school when he is done playing; and is aiming for a Rhodes Scholarship.
*He’s the vice president of FSU’s Student-Athlete Advisory Council.
*He will graduate in August, two years ahead of schedule.
*He was selected to speak before the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics looking on a panel dealing with recruiting.
*He spent part of last summer studying in London as part of the school’s international program. “I took comparative politics, holistic medicine, and a grief and loss class,” Rolle says.
*He was awarded a Florida State University 2008 Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Award. The purpose of the award, according to the university, is “to help Rolle realize his intellectual and creative potential, clarify his career goals and help him prepare for graduate school and national fellowship competitions.”
*The Rolle family was featured in a December, 2007 Sports Illustrated story by S.L. Price.
*He was the No. 1 high school prospect in the country in 2006.
*He was the 2006 ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year and a Freshman All-American. In 2007, Rolle was named to the All-ACC Academic team.
*Scout.com already ranks him as the No. 1 strong safety pro prospect in the country, although he’s only played two seasons.
Rolle learned early on from his family that life was not all about athletics.
“I was always told that being an athlete carries a great responsibility. We have something a lot of people don’t. So use it.
“I had guidance. I was shown the right direction. But I see a lot of kids that need that same kind of inspiration. In Tallahassee, they look up to football players. Maybe they get positives from their teachers and parents, but it’s different when they see someone like me doing the right things in the classroom and in the community as well as in my football uniform. They listen. And hopefully learn.
“I’m just trying to live my life the way I was taught,” he continued. “I’ve never shied away from that. I’m in a position to make a difference.
“As a kid, I couldn’t play unless my homework was done. That’s when I realized my parents took it quite seriously. So I did, too,” he told Mike Kern of the Philadelphia Daily News.
“You have a sense from him that football is an important part of his life, but there are things he wants to do that are equally and more important,” said Jody Spooner, former director of FSU’s Office of National Fellowships. “He’s a kid with perspective on his whole life.”
Rolle’s role model? It’s Benjamin Carson, a doctor and director of pediatric neurosurgery at John Hopkins Medical Institution. He’s the guy who turned cerebral hemispherectomy surgery - a once-unpopular procedure that includes half the patient’s brain being removed during surgery - into a widely used operation to treat brain tumors during the past two decades.
“He’s (Carson) very inspirational, being an accomplished neurosurgeon, being black and coming from a lower income level,” Rolle told Scott Carter of the Tampa Tribune. “Public service is always something I wanted to do and I’m interested in science. Being a physician, I think, is a calling for me, obviously after football is done. It’s one of my ultimate goals in life. I saw [Carson’s] life and wanted to emulate it as best as possible.”
It appears that sooner or later others will be emulating Rolle’s life.
For further information on The Lott Trophy, please visit our website at http://www.TheLottTrophy.com.
Media Contact:
Pete Donovan
760/360-0414
About the Lott Trophy:
The Lott Trophy was established by The Pacific Club IMPACT Foundation to honor college football’s Defensive IMPACT Player of the Year.
The award is unique because it represents the first trophy to give equal weight to personal character as well as athletic performance from a defensive college player and is the first national college football award based on the West Coast.
The Lott Trophy was named in honor of Ronnie Lott - a two time All -American for USC and College Football Hall of Fame inductee. Ronnie Lott went on to win four Super Bowl rings with the San Francisco 49ers, ten trips to the Pro Bowl and a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Always known as a fierce competitor, he was a leader who had IMPACT both on and off the field.
