Establishing Priorities for Student-Athletes: Balancing Academics and Sports

The overachievement of African American male student-athletes in becoming 65% of the National Football League (NFL) and 78% of the National Basketball Association (NBA) does not offset the underachievement in graduation rates from college and admission to professional schools to earn doctorate degrees. Whereas the NFL and NBA selected 224 and 60 student-athletes respectively in the 2011 drafts, U.S. medical schools admitted 19,230 students in 2011 and African American males comprised only 2.3% (445) of the total. In addition, the NFL and NBA employed 1,696 and 450 professional athletes, respectively; however, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects an increase in the number of U.S. physicians from 661,400 in 2008 to 805,000 in 2018. Imbalances between athletic skill building and academic skill building demonstrated by some African American male student-athletes should be considered an adolescent health risk behavior requiring intervention to affect changes in attitudes, knowledge, and skills.