The Pressures of Being a High Profile Male Collegiate Athlete - Brandon Focht, Anthony Cornwell, Ben Matheny, and Jay Clark

Our presentation looks at the struggle of being a high profile college athlete, with our main focus on two current high profile athletes in college football, Jadeveon Clowney and Johny Manziel. Through the current events of Jedeveon Clowney and Johny Manziel we review Title IX, the roles of sexuality and gender, and the impact that high profile players can have on a program/school’s economics. We used many different topics and articles in this presentation but we found ourselves most interested in the article on black masculinity and the article about Tigers mishaps with women. We began our focus on Jedeveon Clowney and his situations relation to Richard Major’s article Cool Pose: Black Masculinity and Sports. Richard Major talks about the limitations on opportunities for black men in relation to education and economic stability. He goes on to say that from these limitations, black people struggle with more frustrations down the road in attempting to earn such respected masculinities. In other words Richards expresses how the African American culture feels more of a need to prove their masculinity because they have little opportunities to begin with. Jedeveon Clowney grew up in a single parent home and went through many of the struggles Major’s article covers. The main focus being football was Clowney's main opportunity for masculinity. We also looked into the discussion of Clowney’s recent absence in games this year. Was Clowney really struggling from a rib injury as Coach Spurrier said or is Clowney looking ahead to his NFL career already? Or was Clowney told not to dress because Spurrier thought he was no longer bought into South Carolinas program? Our second high profile player was Texas A&M’s quarter back Johnny Manziel. In relation to the article Tiger in the Rough we relate Manziels actions towards his super star status to Tigers sex addictions from success in golf. Although Johnny’s actions since stardom are much less morally wrong than Tigers, the attention attracted from the general public has been quite similar. Fans were concerned about their superstars’ actions. In Manzeil’s defense we attempt to look at the situation in his eyes. We need to understand that Manzeil, unlike Tiger, is still a young man growing up in college. Being watched by the media and your fans everyday can make a high profile athlete act out differently then they normally would.