NFL and Cowboys players who have impressive academic achievements

It’s a myth that most college football players are not the sharpest knives in the drawer or declare silly majors like “General Studies”. In fact, as of 2021, NFL players have the highest college graduation rate of any professional sport in the world. Over 40% of current NFL players have a degree by the time they enter the league, and many more get their degrees while still playing in the NFL.

There are many famous NFL players who were also brilliant in the classroom. Here are a few:

• HOF 49er QB Steve Young has a law degree from BYU.
• HOF Vikings DL Alan Page earned a doctorate in law and later served as an Assistant Attorney General and later a Minnesota Supreme Court justice.
• Former Browns QB Frank Ryan has a doctorate in mathematics from Rice University and has served as a professor in math at Cleveland‘s Case Western University.
• Former rams QB Pat Hayden was a Rhodes Scholar who studied at Oxford in England where he earned a bachelors degree in economics and political science. He later earned a law degree from Loyola University.
• Former Titans S Myron Rolle was also a Rhodes Scholar who earned a bachelor’s degree in exercise science/pre-med then earned a Master‘s in medical anthropology from Oxford University in England. He is now an intern in neurosurgery at Harvard University Hospital in Massachusetts.

There are several current and former Cowboys who earned multiple”e degrees:

• Former Cowboys OL Blaine Nye graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in physics, then later two master’s degrees- one in physics from Univ of Washington and and another in business administration from Stanford. And…after retiring he earned a doctorate degree in Finance, also from Stanford.
• Former Cowboys C Travis Frederick with a degree in computer engineering from Wisconsin where he was All Academic Big 10 for his excellence in the classroom. as well as All Big 10. He has been working on an advanced degree in computer science and has started a video game business.
• Former Cowboys WR Tony Hill graduated from Stanford in 1977 at age 20 with a degree in Political Science where he was All Academic Pac 8 player. He has started several businesses in the Dallas area and works for the City of Allen as a Resource Development Manager.
• Current QB Dak Prescott has a bachelors degree in educational psychology, a master’s degree in workforce leadership and has started his doctoral degree in psychology.

Lots of NFL players and certainly several Dallas Cowboys players have impressive academic achievements. The dumb jock reputation for football players doesn’t always apply.