The final BCS National Championship game ended in one of the more memorable fashions sports fans have seen. However, despite the bedlam of the game, it was impossible to keep your focus off of one man.
That one man was Jameis Winston, Florida State’s Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback. The attention is something that Winston was forced to get used to throughout the season due to his superlative play, but undivided attention and sports have never mixed with the national championship’s MVP. You see, Winston not only leads the Seminole’s football team onto the field on Saturdays during the fall, but also uses his rocket-arm abilities in the spring on the baseball diamond – playing outfield and pitching for Florida State’s baseball team.
That’s right, the best college football player in the country is not just a football player. In fact, Winston had already been drafted by the Texas Rangers in 2012 but has decided to stay in school instead for now.
Winston’s situation isn’t necessarily unique. Russell Wilson, the quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks, was also a two-sport athlete in college at North Carolina State and Wisconsin (and coincidentally also drafted by the Texas Rangers).
While we don’t all have the ability to be professional athletes, some of us could be parents of little ones that will one day hold a dream of becoming the next Winston, winning the national championship and then heading to baseball practice in the spring. This dream will contradict the current fad of parents having their children “specialize” in a certain sport, so what will we tell them?
We should tell them the truth. Tell them stories of Winston winning the Heisman and getting drafted. Tell them of Bo Jackson becoming an MLB All-Star and an NFL Pro-Bowler.
Parents in America need to quit living vicariously through their children, hoping the child’s scholarship will somehow feel like their scholarship. The fact is, very few people get those scholarships and even fewer become pros. Childhood is the only time in the vast majority of peoples’ lives where we get the pleasure of playing sports, so why limit that enjoyment?
Don’t put this pressure on your children; let sports give them as much enjoyment as they want. Who knows, maybe your child will be the next quarterback chosen in the draft by the Texas Rangers.
Brooks Stephenson is a sophomore at Oklahoma Christian University
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