Photo: BleacherReport.com

BaltimoreSun.com - I have touched on the subject of professional athletes being role models to our youth in the past and have strongly sided on letting parents handle the responsibility, along with coaches, teachers and any other adults close to them.

I have found an exception, although Florida State standout safety Myron Rolle isn't a pro football star just yet. Rolle, a pre-med major who earned his undergraduate in 2 1/2 years, will bypass the NFL Draft this spring along with the seven-figure signing bonus he would have received as a high draft pick.

Instead, he has accepted the prestigious Rhodes Scholar that he was awarded in November and will study abroad for one year at Oxford, working toward a master's degree in medical anthropology.

For Rolle, the NFL and millions of dollars will wait until 2010. After his football career, he wants to open health clinics in the Bahamas to help the needy. Now that's a refreshing and unique path Rolle will take that anybody can look up to.

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What if Myron Rolle were a white quarterback?