Now before any of you attack me for being racist (it's always touchy when using the words 'well-spoken' when discussing someone who is African-American), allow me to explain.
Morris Claiborne attended college at that fine SEC Institute of Higher Learning- LSU. He played cornerback, and ended up being drafted sixth overall- so before I mock him, understand he'll make more by age 25 than i will in my lifetime (yet if history tells us anything, it's that I'll have more at age 60 then most of the first round draft picks will).
He took the Wonderlic, which is an intelligence test given at the Football Combine.
It's a fifty-question timed multiple choice test. Pat McInally of Harvard is the only football player to score a 50. Typical scores are in the 20s.
Mr Claiborne scored a 4.
From what I've read, there is no penalty for answering incorrectly- and Wonderlic says that a score of ten shows a person is literate (not sure how they figured that out- the questions have five possible answers. If I answered randomly without reading the questions, I would be expected to score a 10- which by their defintion, I would prove myself literate by not reading. Apparently statistics are not part of the test?)
So to score a 4 is quite the achievement (in his defense, he said he didn't take the test seriously. Again, if you answered randomly, you would be expected to get a 10...and he got a FOUR!)
I was listening to sports talk radio when they promo'ed a quick interview with him at the draft. I honestly expected the typical athlete.
He was well-spoken. He spoke off the cuff (I mean he probably had an idea as to the nature of the questions at the draft- they're probably not going to ask him how an internal combusion engine works), and actually sounded intelligent. Certainly more intelligent than a lot of athletes who scored higher.
I did a little more research and found that he has a learning disability (beyond attending public schools in Louisiana for his entire life, I mean).
So my hat's off to him, and I wish him the best of luck. Though again, it seems to me that if randomness will get you a ten...you really have to work to get a four.
-Zjabs (Rochester's Official Columnist)
© 2012 Zjabs - 5/3/12
