MYRON ROLLE

As an NFL rookie, I had to buy meals for older guys. I appreciate hierarchy. I understand teamwork.

Yes, I understand that football and sports in America have been a way for us to get away from some of our most daunting moments. It's a way for us to bring the country together.

Football helped me tremendously, and that's why I want the sport to stay because it's so valuable. It's helped me be a better physician today, certainly. I've learned discipline. I've learned focus, teamwork, communication.

The fundamentals have to be emphasized: tackling the correct way. Having the right equipment. Making sure that you don't have very violent practices or contact practices.

I wanted to be completely and totally entrenched, immersed in this football life, this culture all the way, so you don't even have a thought, an inkling, that my mind is somewhere else.

The hospital has adjusted itself in response to Covid-19, the influx of patients. So walking into the hospital, you immediately realize that you're playing a different ballgame.

As soon as I learned that I was a finalist, it was no question in my mind that I was going to put myself into the competition for the Rhodes scholarship.

I know that my parents are proud of me.

I always wanted to play in the NFL. I decided to go to Florida State University as my college to play football because the coach there - Bobby Bowden - had a pedigree and acumen for putting players into the league.

We are trained to be medical doctors first and if you have to put neurosurgery aside to deal with the most vulnerable and susceptible patients, then that's what we'll do.

I went to Florida State for college. Then I went to Oxford in England for a master's degree. I was drafted by the Titans and was with them for two years, and then one year in Pittsburgh with the Steelers.

Once my junior year finished at Florida State, I won the Rhodes Scholarship and I was also projected as a second-round draft pick.

First I was still excited and elated about winning the Rhodes scholarship. That was an amazing feat. But then I put my iPod on and started listening to my pre-game music and started to switch my mind to football and was just hoping that the jet would land as quickly as possible so that I could get on the field and help my teammates win the game.

Neurosurgery is a new challenge with each case. The preparation, the discipline, the technical skills and the need to perform at your very best under pressure provide the same adrenaline rush I had in football.

Football has never left me. I still wake up in the morning and think of the operating room like a game, like it's showtime, let's perform.

You would think none of my brothers have jobs with how much time they spend on the phone with our mom.

The Rhodes scholarship process was very extensive. I had to do several personal statements, rewrite those over and over and over again. I had to get some letters of recommendation.

A lot of the same joy and adrenaline rush that I felt after making a good play or winning in football I feel now after a successful surgery.

When I was younger, trying to afford football camps, my parents would sometimes have to miss bills. They sacrificed these things for me because they saw I had a goal.

I came from a prep school in New Jersey, so I get that when I got to FSU, some people weren't sure about me - I didn't play in Florida or Texas or at a powerhouse high school.

I'd hate to see the game I love go away because it is considered too dangerous and parents are scared to allow their kids to play.

I've wanted to do medicine actually before I started playing football.

Seven years of neurosurgery is a big deal, something I wanted for a long time, really excited about it.

There'd be a call from Michigan Scout, then Michigan Rivals, then Iowa Scout, then Iowa Rivals. These guys are competing, and I'm just the guy in the middle giving them the story.

You know I went to the Hunt Schools, a boarding school in Princeton, and I've heard so many Rhodes scholars have gone to the Ivys.