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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The vast majority of athletes, particularly excluding top level basketball and football, are generally relatively close to the rest of the student body. It is the high profile stories that get the most press.

And I would argue that the skills learned playing a competitive sport will serve many people better in life than most of the other characteristics prioritized by all of the ignorant people who love to hate on sports.[b] Teamwork. People skills. Determination. Dealing with failure. Sense of humor.[/b]

I would rather hire an athlete with slightly lower academic qualifications but strong EQ for most jobs than some kid with 18 APs who has never watched TV or been to a sporting event, doesn't have a firm handshake and can't make small talk. I'm sure I will be slammed for this but I don't care.[/quote]

You forgot domestic violence, rape, animal abuse, drug abuse, and gambling. [/quote]

There are plenty of non-athletes who do the same thing. Generalizing like that shows how ignorant you are. The stereotype of the person who goes on a shooting rampage is a non-athletic person with no friends.[/quote]

Sure there are plenty of non-athletes who do the same. But by the same token, there are plenty of non-athletes who have learned “Teamwork. People skills. Determination. Dealing with failure. Sense of humor.” Athletes don’t have any sort of lock or edge on these qualities. So your argument is moot. And you mooted it. [/quote]

Of course people learn those skills in non-athletic settings. But, it is often commented that athletes do have an edge in those areas compared to the general population. There is a significant body of academic research which backs this up as well.[/quote]

What “general population?” Do you think a violinist in an orchestra doesn’t know determination? Do you think someone who works on a play doesn’t know teamwork? A debater doesn’t know failure? There’s nothing special about sports, except in the minds of people who have elevated them to a religion. [/quote]

I’m sensing quite a bit of insecurity especially since I never said people couldn’t learn those skills in other pursuits. I merely pointed out that the levels of success for athletes has been well studied and documented.[/quote]

Again, what “general population?” You seem to be positing athletes against everyone else, and that’s stupid. Perhaps they have an edge in these qualities over kids who do no extracurriculars whatever, but all of the attributes you confer upon athletes are just as well found in kids who pursue other activities. You’ve set up a false premise of “gen pop” vs athlete. [/quote]

You know who else has a high level of success? Rich kids - do you think they have some behavioral advantage over others?

[/quote]

What does this have to do with the discussion at hand?[/quote]

The PP said “ I merely pointed out that the levels of success for athletes has been well studied and documented” to argue that because athletes have certain levels of success they must be learning something from sports. My point is that rich kids also have certain levels of success and I don’t think anyone thinks it has anything to do with merit.

Also the overlap at highly selective colleges between athletes and income is pretty big.  These are rich kids doing rich kid sports. [b]So their success may have very little to do with anything they supposedly learned on the field. [/b]

Lastly - if you’re arguing a link exists between college sports and later success then why does it matter whether you played sports in high school and didn’t get recruited? You wouldn’t have played sports in college and none of these “studies” applies [/quote]

Your reasoning is very weak. If you want to discount that the leadership attributes attributed to athletes success are better attributed to wealth because that also correlates you have fallen into typical correlation causation fallacy.[/quote]

Funny coming from the person who sees athletes having success and arguing it is because of athletics that they are successful. It seems possible that these are rich kids benefiting from their wealth as much as from anything [/quote]

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