Top 10 SAT Scores of Athletes in Pro-Sports

Many people assume that professional athletes are stereotypical jocks – all brawn and no brain. You might be surprised to hear that the free college education many of them receive was not because of their talent because they’re brilliant.

Here are ten pro-athletes with the highest SAT scores:

1. George Parros – 1250

Parros is known as a tough guy on the ice, but he was an economics nerd at Princeton with 3.18 GPA. While in the junior league, Parros worked for the Chicago Board of Trade.

He has a crossword puzzle hobby, as he often solves the puzzle after he reads USA Today and New York Times.

Plus, he has one of the most impressive looking mustaches of all-time.

2. Chris Young – 1300

If there was ever a person who could truly balance studies and sports, Young exceeds such expectations for a student-athlete.

The Princeton-educated Economics major is the first athlete to ever be named All-Ivy League in baseball and basketball. Moreover, the Nationals starting pitcher completed his thesis for politics class while still playing in the minor leagues.

Who knows, the White House might call him for more research.

3. David Robinson – 1320

“The Admiral” went on to become one of the greatest players of the NBA after a humble start at the Naval Academy.

The mathematics major was selected first overall in the 1987 draft; however, the Spurs had to wait two years because he had to fulfill his active-duty obligation with the Navy. During those two years, he served as a civil engineering officer at a naval submarine base in Georgia.

4. Myron Rolle – 1420

Myron Rolle is known more for his brains than his brawn.

The former FSU star safety graduated from college in just 2 ½ years, while maintaining a 3.75 GPA. He was also awarded the Rhodes scholarship and went on to study Medical Anthropology in Oxford.

He retired from football to pursue his medical doctorate.

5. Matt Bonner – 1350

Matt Bonner is known as a three-point shooting big man for the San Antonio Spurs.

He happened to have high remarks in his college days in Florida too.

The business major maintained a 3.96 GPA and other than his chemistry grade, never received less than an “A” as final grade in any class throughout his academic career.

“Red Mamba” happens to also be part of one of the smartest professional teams in sports.

6. Craig Breslow – 1420

The Boston Red Sox pitcher was named the smartest athlete in all sports by Sporting News in 2010.

Other than his high SAT score, the Yale alumnus also got a 34 on his MCAT’s (the average score is a 28), and was accepted into NYU’s Medical School.

Breslow graduated with a 3.5 GPA with a degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry.  On top of all that, he made a very funny video mocking Rex Ryan’s foot fetish.

7. Jeremy Lin – 1428

Jeremy Lin took the league by storm two years ago as an unheralded hero in New York, and that stretch led him to his huge pay from Houston.

But whether he made it in the NBA or not, the Harvard economics graduate would be great at any field he would choose.

While maintaining a 4.2 GPA, the former Palo Alto High School product perfected the mathematical part in the SAT, while producing a total of 2061* in his SAT.

*In 2005, the SAT includes the 800-point writing test.

8. Ross Ohlendorf – 1520

The Washington Nationals starting pitcher went to Princeton to major in operations research and financial engineering while maintaining a 3.8 GPA.

In 2009, he worked as a volunteer intern in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In addition to having worked on a cost-benefit analysis of a program that traces diseases in livestock and its effect on farmers, he also helps his father manage the family’s herd of longhorns in Texas.

9. Matt Birk – 1550

It’s hard to believe, but former Baltimore Ravens center Matt Birk is in fact one of the smartest men in the history of sports.

Birk graduated from Harvard in 1998 with a degree in economics, and had he not made it in the NFL, there’s a good chance he would do well on Wall Street, as he was offered a job there before football came.

Birk thought his football career was initially only in place to delay his business career, but he went on to have a great career in the gridiron: being named a Pro Bowler six times and winning a Super Bowl Championship.

10. Ryan Fitzpatrick – 1580

Ryan Fitzpatrick might have been a decent quarterback in the last few years, but his brain should be donated to the National Football Hall of Fame when he dies because a guy this smart joins the NFL once in a millennium.

The Tennessee Titan quarterback achieved a near flawless SAT score and studied economics at Harvard before becoming a seventh round draft pick in 2005.

More impressively, he made headlines before the 2005 draft when he was recorded to have almost aced the Wonderlic test. He scored a 48, while taking the test in just nine minutes.

Conclusion – Do the above 10 professional athletes represent nothing more than a dramatic exception to the rule that jocks are dumb? Or does the media unfairly portray our sporting heroes as modern day gladiators here to entertain us with brawn with little else to offer? Share this article on your Social Networks and post your thoughts along with it. We look forward to seeing your opinion.

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