FSU Defensive Back Rolle Balances Sports, Books

It's no surprise that you never hear about big-time college football players and Rhodes scholars in the same breath.

Myron Rolle could change that. He's the starting strong safety for the Florida State Seminoles and is a finalist for a Rhodes scholarship.

Initially, Rolle had to choose between attending the final interviews for the scholarship in Birmingham, Ala., or playing in FSU's game in College Park, Md., on Nov. 22.

"As soon as I learned I was a finalist, there was no question in my mind that I was going to put myself into the competition for the Rhodes scholarship," he tells NPR's Robert Siegel. "It's the opportunity to do some great things with my life."

After the interviews, a charter flight will take Rolle to College Park for part of the game. The gametime was adjusted so he could make it.

The pre-med student says his teammates kid him all the time.

"My nickname is the doctor or the president in the locker room," he says. "Whenever there is a debate that goes on in the locker room about whether tomatoes are really red or whether there's a country in North Africa named Algeria, they'll ask me.

"They don't go to Google, they go to Myron."