Myron Rolle left the NFL in 2013 to enter medical school to become a neurosurgeon, and now he is on the front lines during the coronavirus crisis in Massachusetts.
Rolle, who quit the NFL in 2013 for a career in medicine, is now leading a “hectic” life as his hospital serves as the tip of the spear for coronavirus. He is a third-year neurosurgery resident at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and is doing his part to help his fellow citizens get past this viral outbreak.
“I gotta do what I gotta do,” he told ESPN Friday. “People are counting on us right now. This is our time to help very sick people. So, that motivation continues to dive me every single day.”
Rolle, who played for the Tennessee Titans in 2010-2011, and who was a standout in college at Florida State, left the NFL after only three seasons to begin training in the medical field. He was no lightweight athlete even before the NFL, though, as he earned a Rhodes Scholarship in 2008 before he ever stood for the NFL Draft.
Even his medical training was at a top school as he began his neurosurgery residency at Harvard Medical School and then at Massachusetts General in June of 2017. In fact, he put pro football off for a year to complete the Rhodes program at Britain’s Oxford College.
Rolle grew up in a tight-knit family of four protective older brothers in Houston, Texas. And according to CNN’s Jacqueline Howard, Rolle credited football with his decision to take up neuroscience.
Two years ago, Rolle told CNN that “toward the end of my career, I started to think about concussions and what the effects of repetitive concussions can do.
“Football has done so much for me, given me friends, family, given me life lessons that now I can use in the operating room or just as a leader,” he added. “I would hate to see it go, and I would love to see it around.”
Still, football was not Rolle’s only guide toward medicine. According to CNN, when he was in fifth grade, Rolle read the book “Gifted Hands” by President Trump’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson. That memoir left him with an interest in medicine.
Whatever his muses, his experience both on the field and in the hospitals gives him a perfect platform to advise young players on how best to safeguard their own health as they play the physically demanding game.
“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,” Rolle said.
“I will tell you in person, ‘Yes, play, but be careful; be safe, and understand some of these things that need to go into it for you to enjoy it,'” he told the cable network.
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