College Athletes Should Strive Essay

We always tell kids to follow their dreams, but is that always the best advice? Could we really be sending them down the wrong path by telling them that they could be an athlete? So this is my question to you: should kids strive to become an athlete or should they focus on other things? Who should kids idolize: a snobby, rich, selfish, athlete or a noble peace award winner? In my opinion sports should not be pursued by most kids because it could hurt them in the long run.

So do the kids even have a chance? Well yes, but not a very big one. In almost all of the surveys about kids’ dream job, an athlete is almost always in the top 3, a lot of the times #1. Let’s say you have a high school boy who plays football; his chance of playing in college is 6.5%, and then his chance of playing in the NFL is 1.6%. And in basketball if you played in high school, you have a 3.4% chance of playing in college and after that a 1.2% chance of getting into the MBA. So as you can see there’s a very small chance.
Some studies suggest that about 1 in 4 kids say that it is unnecessary to study hard and finish school if you excel in sports. If kids spend all their time doing sports and not doing homework their grades may suffer. Sports also make schedules busy. A lot of my friends play sports and their schedules are crazy. They have around 4 practices and a game or two each week. They have hardly any free time. Also there is a high risk of injury. Kids get concussions broken and bones all the time. These things can be costly and have long term