“Big Jake” was a teammate of mine at Virginia Tech. Jake had his epiphany as he was preparing for his final season at Virginia Tech; I had just finished my last season and was working on finishing my degree.
Jake was a handsome young man who, at 6’ 7” and 280 lbs, constantly lived up to his nickname. His main concerns at this point in his life were crushing quarterbacks as a defensive tackle, consuming as much Budweiser as he could get his hands on and making the acquaintance of as many pretty young ladies as he could. Academics? Why bother? After his senior season Jake would be playing in the NFL on Sundays, making the big bucks. There was no stopping him – he was on a serious roll.
One night he got a phone call from his brother, “Junior,” also a football player at Virginia Tech. Junior ordered him to get down to Campus Club (a local dive bar) ASAP. Big Jake took his brother’s advice and headed into town immediately. Walking in, he saw what all the fuss was about: Ro “Boaty” Waldron was working the door at Campus Club, and was mopping the floors in his spare time. This is too good to be true, Jake thought. Man, are we going to have some fun at Boaty’s expense tonight!
Big Jake and his brother spent the rest of the evening spilling food and beer on the floor for “Boaty” to mop up, laughing and making fun of him in front of their lady friends.
Later that night, back at his dorm after all the beer was finished and the laughter had died down, Big Jake had a startling thought: That was “Boaty” freaking Waldron with that mop in his hand! He was a big time player on last year’s Peach Bowl team, and he didn’t make it into the league? And now he’s mopping floors? The horrifying truth finally occurred to Jake: That could be ME next year! I better start studying!
This epiphany led Jake to begin a major reversal of his trainwreck of an academic record, and he went on to graduate from Virginia Tech. It’s a good thing too, because his future in the league ended up pretty similar to mine – his tryouts with the Baltimore Colts and the Washington Federals of the USFL did not go as planned.
Armed with his degree, the big guy opened a State Farm Agency that rose to the top 5% of State Farm agencies nationwide.
Have a great weekend,
Ro
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