Safety Myron Rolle, A Rhodes Scholar, Put Education First

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The Steelers made their first round of cuts Monday letting go of 15 players. Among them were kicker Daniel Hrappman, linebacker Mortty Ivy and safety Myron Rolle.

For Rolle, this may be the end of his time with the Steelers, but he still has even bigger plans in the works. Football has been his passion, but not his top priority. He made that school work.

His parents, from the Bahamas, emphasized grades over gridiron which he took seriously enough to get straight As in everything in college, except for one B.

"It was tough. I was fighting the whole semester," Rolle said. "Organic Chemistry kind of hit me hard. I wasn't expecting that class to be that difficult, but I went, saw the teacher [during] office hours, I did everything I could, but I just couldn't pull off the A. I was very upset."

"I talked to my defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews at Florida State about it and he was like, 'I hope you get this upset when you get BT for something like that,'" he said. "But, yeah, it just motivated me to do better. In Organic Chemistry II I did much better. I got an A, moved on and now the professor and I are good friends."

Rolle was a top recruit coming out of high school in football, but that's not why he went to Florida State on scholarship. He wanted to get a degree in premed which he did in just over two years. Then he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University in England to continue his studies.

"I think it's placed me in a different social station in life," Rolle said. "In one way, I've sort of become a role model for student athletes, for people who want to achieve success in the classroom and on the field, they can look at my story hopefully and draw inspiration to say, 'You know, I can be an All-American football player at a big school like Florida State while having a 3.75 GPA, graduating two-and-a-half years and earning a Rhodes Scholarship.'

"So, if I can be that standard, that paradigm for someone, then it's a blessing."

And now, as he continues to try to start an NFL career which is still very much up in the air, he knows if that doesn't work out, he has many options.

"I've always wanted to be a neurosurgeon, I've always had that interest," Rolle said. "Medicine has been something that's fascinated me. When I was at Oxford, I studied medical anthropology. Now being in the NFL, you know, I see the different medical treatments that go on, especially things with concussions. It's just drawn me closer to the field."

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