This bit of news on Texas quarterback Case McCoy probably shouldn't be news at all.
College is about becoming a well-rounded individual, whether studying abroad, taking unusual classes or anything like that. Or, for Case McCoy, doing some missionary work.
Texas coach Mack Brown announced that McCoy, currently his backup quarterback, had plans that have nothing to do with football.
Texas QB Case McCoy will miss summer workouts because he's gone to Peru for mission work for 10 weeks.
— kbohls (@kbohls) June 3, 2013
That sounds like a tremendous opportunity. Again, this probably shouldn't be news, but it is.
College football has turned into a year-round job for these (yes, unpaid) athletes. Voluntary workouts are "voluntary" with the biggest quotation marks imaginable. Brown deserves credit for giving McCoy the blessing to go, but the Dallas Morning News had an illuminating quote from Brown:
"Brown conceded on Monday though that, had this not been McCoy’s fourth summer with the team, the time away 'would be a killer.'"
That's not an unusual sentiment, and we don't criticize Brown for saying what he and every other FBS coach is thinking. But how many players like McCoy wanted to do something as fulfilling as missionary work or something else to make themselves more well rounded as people, and didn't feel they could go (or were discouraged from it) because it "would be a killer" for their football careers?
So good for Texas and McCoy. The weeks away from some summer drills won't be too bad for him, football-wise. And he'll probably be better off as a person than he would have been spending his entire summer running dozens of passing drills in the Texas heat.
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