Florida State's studious Rolle draws double coverage at Maryland game

Two significant local athletes will be rooting for different teams in tonight's pivotal Maryland-Florida State football game at Byrd Stadium. But both will be cheering on one particular player - one who might not even play.

Tom McMillen and Samari Rolle will have their attention trained on Florida State safety Myron Rolle, as will much of the college football world. Myron Rolle is likely the first player ever whose status for a game was "questionable: Rhodes scholarship interview." The timing of this final step toward attaining this prestigious post-graduate honor means the Seminoles junior (in eligibility; he already has graduated) will be getting on a private plane after the interview in Birmingham, Ala. ends at about 6 p.m. to get to the game that kicks off at 7:45.

McMillen, the former Maryland All-America basketball player and U.S. congressman, is pulling for Rolle to join the select Rhodes Scholar fraternity, and the even more select group of elite athletes within it. Samari Rolle, the Ravens' cornerback and former Florida State star - well, the last name is a good hint as to why he's so interested. The two are distant cousins (as far as they know) descended from a prominent family in the Bahamas, and Samari has been Myron's mentor since the younger Rolle's junior year in high school, back when Myron made it clear he wanted to follow Samari to Florida State.

Both McMillen - who has not met Myron Rolle but has learned a lot about him in recent weeks - and Samari Rolle share a deep-seated pride in seeing an athlete in a major revenue-producing sport, in a college sports environment that borders on being anti-academic, making such an indelible mark on the field and in the classroom.

"I think of the challenges today - every year, the candidates [for the Rhodes] get more competitive, and their resumes are unbelievable. So it's really challenging as an athlete today to match that," said McMillen, whose selection to study at Oxford came in late 1973, to commence upon his graduation with a chemistry degree in 1974.

"With the demands that are put on athletes at that level now, it's really hard to maintain that balance," he continued. "I don't know if I could play big-time basketball and be a chemistry major today."

Samari Rolle understood what a task Myron had taken on - and was well aware of the negative perception the program had in terms of the athletic-academic balance. "People put him down for going to Florida State, saying, 'You're not going to be able to do that playing there,' " he recalled.