The Power of the Professor

Twenty-four years later, one lesson still teaches.

I was standing in front of the Parthenon and I was immediately taken back to 2001.

The class was communication and rhetoric. The professor was Peter Simonson. I didn’t realize it then but I sure am now that that singular class, that singular professor shaped the trajectory of my life.

As I’m flying home, fully transitioning back to college football from a summer adventure in Europe, I am reading the media day headlines: Tampering accusations (Pitt). Defending a programs history (Clemson). A break away from the NCAA (SEC). You get it. The news.

Yet I keep thinking about my professor.

Back then I was nothing more, nothing less, than a Social Security number in a lecture hall of three hundred fifty students at Pitt. Then Professor Simonson started talking about Greek history. About the power of speech. About the Encomium of Helen.

I was hooked.

I started sitting in the front row. I started showing up to office hours. I fell in love with every lesson he taught.

That class became my major. That major became a career. Understanding dialogue, understanding how we communicate, understanding the history behind the words we choose. Being obsessed with it.

Like I mentioned, headlines are headlines. But the players who play and the teachers who teach are what I find myself coming back to somewhere across the Atlantic.

While it’s not going to make news, it is true that college football players still go to class.

‘Class’ may not look like it used to. Some of it is digital. Some of it runs through tutors. But the college experience is still happening for them, quietly, in between practices and game plans.

I know academia can sour on college sports, heck we all can. The money made. The money spent. It is easy to point at that and check out.

As the season is less than 50 days away I am asking you not to. Especially if you’re an educator on campus.

Professors, you still have influence. And the rest of today’s newsletter is for you.

You still shape how these young people think, speak, and move through the world. A single lesson can change a life choice.

Many athletes we cheer for do not know how to navigate your classroom. They will not raise their hand first. They will not linger after class.

So invite them to office hours. Call on them, gently, before they ever have to raise a hand themselves.

I was that kid once. Quiet. Unsure. Just a number in a room of three hundred fifty.

One class hooked me. One professor mentored me.

As I trade summer vacation for six months of fall, I keep coming back to this.

To every professor standing in front of every athlete this season: you have more power than you know. So use it and maybe you can change a young athlete’s life…in September or 25 years from now.

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi