[legion]

Had a friend of a friend (one of my college roommate's high school friends) that went through this.

This guy gets recruited by a private catholic high school (where my college roommate went to high school) to play football. He got his tuition waved. He played running back and was a standout on the field. Despite the small size of the high school (400 students) he gets recruited by Notre Dame to play football where he gets a full ride.

Freshmen year, during summer practice (or during an early game, I don't recall which), he gets injured. He spends his entire freshmen year on the bench and doesn't play at all or practice much because of the injury.

Now, I get the sense from my friend that because he was such a standout for football in high school, all of the teachers in his high school were "with the program". He got the grades he needed to stay eligible without having to put forth any effort.

From what I hear, even though he was injured and not suiting up, he still knew to visit his football locker at least once a week. The week before classes his books would be in there. There'd always be new clothes and snacks. Sometimes there'd be tickets to local events or video games. He even got a cell phone (this was the late 90's and not everyone had a cell phone back then).

Now, because of his high school experience, he didn't think he'd have to study in college either. He was given free tutors, group study opportunities. His classes were pretty much picked out for him so as not to interfere with football. He took advantage of none of it nor did he really show up for class. By the end of his freshmen year, his grades were in such a state that regaining eligibility was not going to happen the next season.

Sophomore year he was put on some sort of academic rehabilitation program. From what I gather, he was both resentful of being forced to work on his grades, and the coaches were less than impressed with his playing. He got cut after his sophomore year.

Junior year he goes to the college I was at that had a crappy Division IA football program and walks on to the team. He plays every game and does okay. He still refuses to work on his grades (or attend class, for that matter). He gets kicked off the team after junior year is over for academic eligibility issues.

I don't know what happened to him after that, but the few times I met the guy it was clear he had a big chip on his shoulder and all of the bad things that happened to him (like getting kicked out of Notre Dame) were other people's fault and he was just the victim.