Leaving School Early is it The Wrong or Right move??
With the NFL draft taking place this weekend, I’m seeing young men fulfilling their dreams of making it to the NFL. I could not be happier for these young men, to be able to
live out a dream that they have had since they were big enough to play football. As I get older and I watch these drafts whether it be the NFL or NBA draft, I started to notice more and more of these young men are leaving college early to pursue their dreams of playing professional ball. I would think to myself why? Why would these young men throw away to chance to earn a college degree while its free? Then one night I was watching a 30 for 30 documentary on ESPN and it was called One and Not Done which followed thecoaching career of Kentucky Men’s basketball coach John Calipari. Kentucky is notorious for having players come in play only one year then leave for the NBA, a lot of people around the country have really hated Kentucky for this, myself included. During the documentary, they had a segment on a player that coach Calipari coached at Memphis, Dajuan Wagner. Wagner was supposed to be the Lebron James before Lebron came onto the scene. Wagner left after only one season at Memphis and played in the NBA, but in October of the 2005 season, he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and had over half of his colon removed and was never able to make a comeback in the NBA. Calipari said that what if Wagner had stayed in college and found out he had this health problem while in college? Most NBA teams would never have given him a shot to play, and he would never have had a chance to make the money he did. And that is the reason why coach Calipari doesn’t hesitate telling his players to go pro and forego the rest of college, he said that if they are really wanting a degree they could come back in the offseason and take classes or they could take online classes. After hearing him say this, I have a different outlook on players who leave school early to go pro and make that money. So as I watch the rest of the NFL draft this weekend and many more to come in future years, I will not judge players so harshly now for leaving college early.
