Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism

The Spanish Olympic men's basketball team making their eyes slanted during a team photo before the games: Dumb. (photo from NPR.org)

A week ago at Huffington Post, Myles Brand wrote an article titled “The ‘Dumb Jock’ Myth is Dumb.” The article focuses on the dumb jock stereotype as it pertains to D-I college athletics:

Student-athletes in Division I — where the dumb jock myth is most firmly attached — graduate on average at a higher rate than the general student body, according to data gathered by the federal government. Student-athletes graduate at a rate of 63 percent, one point better than all other students. Given that more than 100,000 student-athletes participate in Division I, the differences in federal rates are statistically significant.

While I was a dumb jock myself (Division III sadly, so my graduation means nothing in the context of this article), I don’t take any gratification from the article. I don’t think it disproves the stereotype at all. I’m not even sure the stats are meaningful.

First off, claiming the myth is “most firmly attached” to the college level is opinion on the part of Brand–an opinion I don’t agree with. I met and played against plenty of dumb jocks in college, but I met more in high school. Think about it: going to college isn’t a requirement. High school isn’t either, but more families expect their kids to complete high school than to attend college.

How many kids did you encounter in high school that had no plans of continuing their education? Maybe it’s different for me because of Maine’s stellar public high school reputation, but I encountered a few. Of those few, the majority were involved in athletics.

Also, the fact that this study is based on Division I athletics is important. Because Division I players are under scholarship, they are, in a sense, the property of the their respective institution’s athletic program. Friends of mine on athletic scholarship have told me horror stories of insanely rigorous preseason workouts where complaints were met with, in essence, “if you don’t like it, kiss your free ride good bye.” You do as your coaches and trainers tell you to do.

So when team study sessions are set, (a policy that most teams follow) you go. And since it is in the program’s best interest to keep you academically eligible — you are their investment after all — if those study sessions aren’t enough, there are tutors that will be found to help you. If you’re at a bigger school, these tutors will travel with you. The result: grades good enough for you to graduate.

Later in the article, Brand cites a different study, this one looking at employment rates in addition to graduation rates:

In 2004, the NCAA studied a group of regular students and student-athletes who graduated from high school in 1994 — ten years earlier. Of that group, 88 percent of all student athletes had graduated in the 10-year window, 21 percent had obtained advanced degrees and 91 percent were employed in full-time jobs. All those numbers were higher than their classmates who were not student-athletes.

To play devil’s advocate here, I would need to see the names of the players (and the sport that they played) before I can take this seriously. Division I college athletics are a huge deal in some states. If you are a player of any sort of notoriety, or even simply a player on a team of notoriety, the chances of you getting a job opportunity are markedly higher than those of a regular Joe (unless it’s Joe the Plumber, of course).

Think about it, given two similarly qualified applicants, who would an employer be more likely to hire: someone who they watch play football every Saturday for their favorite college team, or a person they’ve never met before?

Lastly, it’s important to look at professional sports if we’re talking about a sports stereotype. Since they draw the most public attention, they set the precedent. And sadly, there are still plenty of dumb jocks in professional sports.

The thing is, more and more pro athletes don’t graduate from college. They either skip school entirely, or they enter the draft before their senior year. Are they gainfully employed? Yes. Does that make them smart? No.

I’m not saying that I think all athletes are dumb. I disagree wholeheartedly. I believe that, given the percentage of athletes in the country, there are the same number of stupid people as you would find in any other general bisection of a community. Athletes just tend to be under more public scrutiny.

Regardless, if Brand wants to help disprove this stereotype, he’s going to need to do a better job.

Update: To appease the masses, here is an example of a smart athlete. In a recent New York Times article, Josh Childress speaks about his decision to become the first player of note to leave the NBA to play in Europe:

“I get paid double, my role increases, I have no expenses and I move to a nice city?” Childress said. “How many guys wouldn’t do that, regardless if you’re a lawyer or a doctor? In a business sense, if I were to tell people that I passed on that deal, I would be stupid. That would be the next headline: Josh Childress Shouldn’t Have Gone to Stanford. He’s an Idiot.”