Indentured by Joe Nocera

Author:Joe Nocera
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2016-02-02T05:00:00+00:00

Scholarship Blues

John Rock was in his sophomore season at Gardner-Webb, a small Baptist school located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, when he began seriously contemplating life after football. It was 2010. Rock was the starting quarterback for the Runnin’ Bulldogs, but he knew he wasn’t an NFL prospect; Gardner-Webb is a tier below the top programs, and Rock’s education was important to him. When he accepted his scholarship, he agreed to redshirt for a season, in part because it would give him a chance to begin a master’s degree during his final year of football eligibility. Rock, in other words, was exactly the kind of “student-athlete” the NCAA purports to exalt.

By his third year on campus, the Ohio native had grown interested in a politics degree. He applied and was accepted to an internship program that fall that would send him to Raleigh for the spring semester to work for state senator Debbie Clary. He would get to see the political process unfold up close and be back on campus for summer football practice. “One of the majors I was considering required an internship, and this was how I could play football and make the most of college,” he says today. “It seemed perfect.”

Rock was wary of NCAA red tape and understood his year-to-year scholarship wasn’t guaranteed, so he talked to the compliance department, his coach, and the athletic director, Chuck Burch. Everything was fine, they said. His scholarship would be waiting for him. It was, they agreed, a great opportunity. Rock happily went off to Raleigh.

But while he was away during his internship, Gardner-Webb’s football coach was replaced by Ron Dickerson Jr. Rock first met his new coach when he made a trip from Raleigh for a team banquet. When he introduced himself to Dickerson, he recalls, his new coach was gruff. “I thought you transferred,” Dickerson told him. “I was about to draft your release.”

Confused, Rock explained the internship and that he would be back for summer workouts. He was happy to compete for the starting job, he said, but he had been assured of his place on the team—and of his scholarship. Still, nervous about the scholarship, he went back to the athletic director. “It’s between you and your coach,” he was now told.

At another meeting with Dickerson the next day, Rock pleaded to remain on the team, while insisting on finishing the internship. He believed he and his coach came to an understanding: he would regularly call to check in from Raleigh for the remainder of the semester and the coaches would reassess the situation over the summer. Slightly relieved, he returned to the state capital, but soon he got a disturbing call from a teammate. His nameplate had been removed from his locker and an equipment manager had cut the lock. All his notes on opponents from the previous season were gone and teammates had scavenged through his equipment. Rock called Dickerson, who flatly told him he was done. His scholarship had been given to another player.

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