LSU, once acclaimed as the Old War Skule and Huey Long's shining university, is best known these days as a football factory.
The school where Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks launched the prestigious Southern Review, world-renowned professors produced ground-breaking research and historian T. Harry Williams wrote nationally lauded books has suffered from the GOP 's stringent budget cuts.
While LSU has won several national football championships, the university's academic standing has fallen. Yet LSU programs like journalism have national reputations, and LSU students receive quality educations. The LSU Press and Southern Review remain at the forefront of academic publishing.
College football programs like LSU's are frequently criticized for not giving their players good educations. They are perceived as training grounds for the NFL.
Three former LSU and NFL players - "Booger" McFarland, Ryan Clark and Marcus Spears - have shown the benefits of their college experience this week following Buffalo Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin's horrifying medical emergency Monday night during the Bills game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
After Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest and received CPR following a seemingly routine tackle of Bengals receiver Tee Higgins and was rushed by ambulance to a Cincinnati hospital, where he remains in critical condition, McFarland, Clark and Spears have given passionate commentary on ESPN about why players risk serious injury, even death, to play pro football.
McFarland appeared with ESPN host Suzy Kolber and reporter Adam Schefter immediately after Hamlin's injury, pressed into extraordinary service when the game was halted. Summoned from the 'green room, where they were awaiting their usual half-time appearances, Kolber, Schefter and McFarland were asked to give impromptu responses to Hamlin's injury.
Fighting through his own shock and grief, McFarland spoke about how the event's rare life-threatening nature horrified the players. After a disputed report that play was to resume after five minutes, he gave the first call for the game's postponement. Kolber and Schefter effectively expressed their stunned reactions, but McFarland gave special insight based on his NFL career, during which he received several serious injuries.
In an appearance Wednesday on ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption" with Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, the nine-year NFL star gave a passionate explanation of why players risk injury or even death to play in the NFL. Like many black NFL players, McFarland grew up in poverty. He told Kornheiser and Wilbon that football offered him the opportunity to leave destitute Winnsboro, a small town in north Louisiana, and provide a better life for his mother.
Clark, appearing on Scott Van Pelt's Sports Center Monday night after Hamlin was rushed to the hospital and the game postponed, spoke of how the athletes' thrill at competition is balanced by the risk of injury. While the players fiercely battle each other, with terrifying hits that are a big part of the NFL's appeal, they share a brotherhood of overcoming pain and fear to achieve amazing athletic feats, he said.
Former Dallas Cowboys star and LSU All-American Marcus Spears in his regular role on ESPN's "NFL Game Day" Wednesday noted the millions of dollars that Americans have donated to Hamlin's toy fund following his injury. Spears passionately asserted that the outpouring of love and concern for Hamlin reflected the basic goodness of Americans, no matter their political philosophy.
McFarland, Clark and Spears have shown football's best qualities with their thoughtful, poignant reflections. As an LSU alum, I've never been prouder of Tigers.
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