Debunking the “Dumb Jock” Myth

We may dress like athletes, and we are athletes, but that does not make us dumb jocks.

There is a popular myth that college athletes know all too well: that we, collegiate student-athletes, only care about our athletic careers, and we are all more than willing to cast our academics and career paths aside.

This myth is actively present in media and popular television, and its prevalence has even caused former college and professional athletes to speak out to actively combat this misconception. This myth is not based in truth, and the reality is that many athletes are becoming professionals in areas other than sports. In 2011, the NCAA released a PSA urging people to rethink how they perceive student-athletes, because the hard evidence shows that athletes are not just dumb jocks.

The 30-second PSA begins with a shot of Gladston Taylor, a former defensive lineman and 1999 graduate from Northwestern University, bench-pressing. This clip is followed by a montage of shots of various athletes competing in other sports. The video distinctly makes its point: college athletics is a physically demanding discipline. At the same time, these depictions are voiced-over with facts — facts that challenge our modern perception of athletes:

• Division I student-athletes have higher SAT/ACT scores than other college-bound students
• The number of student-athletes receiving diplomas is at an all-time high
• African American males who are student-athletes are 10% more likely to graduate

“Still think we’re just a bunch of dumb jocks? — Cynthia Dallas, former Illinois women’s basketball player and 2004 graduate.

“You need to do your homework.” — Casey Olson, former Fresno State wrestler and 2004 graduate.

The PSA concludes with the narrator stating that “there are over 400,000 NCAA student-athletes, and just about all of us will be going pro in something other than sports.”

Behind the scenes of this PSA, the people working to put it together were most concerned about bringing this issue to the forefront by being direct. As the executive vice president and account manager of Y&R San Francisco, Paul Hastings said that “the facts for ‘Dumb Jocks’ speak for themselves, and we didn’t want any special effects or anything to get in the way of it.”

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Like many myths and stereotypes, the idea of the dumb jock is perpetuated by the media and television shows. Take Friday Night Lights football star Tim Riggins, for example.

He’s popular, a star fullback…but he’s useless in the classroom. He’s useless to the point of having people do his work for him and then purposefully inserting grammar errors to hide the fact that he didn’t do the work. In spite of depictions like that, however, football players (especially quarterbacks) are often very intelligent athletes.

Ryan Fitzpatrick, quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, for example, received a degree in Mathematics in 2005 from Harvard University. Receiving a degree from Harvard is impressive. Playing Division I football and getting a degree from Harvard is very impressive.

The popular path that Division I football and basketball players take to the NFL and NBA overshadows any other path that student-athletes take after graduation. The focus by media and television on these two college sports causes many to assume that all athletes have the same dream of going pro and are willing to sacrifice their academics to attain that goal. While that may be true for some, it is not the universal truth some would have you believe.

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While many athletes do just play, without any hope or motivation of anything else, most absorb the lessons learned both in the classroom and on the field. An athlete’s ability to manage their academically rigorous course load while traveling on weekends for games speaks for their ability to plan ahead and manage their time. The countless hours that athletes spend training in hope of pursuing sports at the collegiate level speaks to our motivation and shows that they have grit. An athlete’s battle with injuries shows that when they get knocked down, you’d better believe that they are getting back up. Their years of experience playing with teammates from all over the country and the world show that they know how to work with others in order to achieve a common goal. And finally, the successes of student-athletes in the workforce show that they are more than just “dumb jocks.”

Student-athletes are not only more dedicated students than the media portrays, but their experience on the field better prepares them for the workforce.

Yale Daily News published an article in 2015 featuring a survey about Yale students’ perceptions of “the myth of the dumb jock.” In this survey, 33% of all varsity student-athletes reported feeling as if athletes on campus are not respected or that they are actively disrespected by fellow students.

Caroline Lynch, the co-president of the Yale Student Athlete College Council and a player on the women’s tennis team, has actively spoke out about the inaccurate assumptions that — specifically Yale’s — admissions waves a magic wand and accepts all athletes, regardless of academic merit:

“Athletics just moves us into the pool that gets selected. To resent people who are athletes for that movement is to say that, somehow, spending 30 hours per week playing a sport is not as worthwhile as holding a job, doing community service and playing the piano.”

Naturally, these misconceptions can have a tremendously negative effect on the athlete, most notably driving them into what is known as “stereotype threat.”