Friday Night Falsehood?
October 22nd, 2008 - byGregg Easterbrook’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback is one of my weekly must-reads. It combines his strong thoughts on football startegy with random but extremely thoughful remarks on society. For the last few seasons he has been recapping the previous weeks Friday Night Lights television show episode. This week he pointed out a common myth in the maistream media that often skews the thoughts of high school athletes.
The Real Way Many Kids Reach College: Here’s a spoiler that matters to public 
policy — a subplot of the current season of “Friday Night Lights” has Brian “Smash” Williams, graduated from Dillon High but without an athletic scholarship owing to an injury, rehabbing his knee and trying to get an offer from a college. Reader Robert Matranga of Orange, Calif., writes, “The show is giving the implication that a football scholarship is his only ticket to college — that without it, college is unreachable. Smash’s family cannot afford the tuition to Texas A&M, where he hopes to go — but what about an academic or need-based scholarship? The show’s implication that athletic scholarship is the only way Brian can attain college feeds the already poor awareness of federal aid in the form of Pell grants and subsidized loans, plus the need-based aid offered by many colleges directly.”
His points about the scholarship system are 100% correct. However, what he fails to recognize is that many times athletes that aren’t offered full scholarships have the inside track to recieve as much funding from grants and other sources. So,yes, many do get too hung up on the word scholarship, but athletics COMBINED with strong academics can be a ticket to college.
