Playing for an NFL team might not be John Urschel's biggest accomplishment.
The Ravens offensive lineman is now a published mathematician. The paper he co-authored is titled "A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fielder Vector of Graph Laplacians." Of course, ahem, we know exactly what that means, but won't elaborate because it's so obvious.
MORE: Chris Borland to return bonus money | Michael Sam at veteran combine | Surprising NFL retirements
Urschel, who was drafted by the Ravens in 2014, attended Penn State University and held a solid 4.0 GPA. He's been published before and he's also an accomplished chess player. Let's take a peak at his latest academic feat.
A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fielder Vector of Graph Laplacians (arxiv.org)
Simple stuff, really.
With all of the talk about Chris Borland's early retirement due to concerns about head trauma, why does Urschel continue to play football while he possesses a Bachelor's and Master's degree in mathematics? He recently penned a piece for the Player's Tribune explaining his decision to pursue football.
What my mother and a great majority of my friends, family, and fellow mathematicians don’t understand is that I’m not playing for the money. I’m not playing for some social status associated with being an elite athlete. No, the media has not brainwashed me into thinking this is what real men do.
I play because I love the game. I love hitting people. There’s a rush you get when you go out on the field, lay everything on the line and physically dominate the player across from you. This is a feeling I’m (for lack of a better word) addicted to, and I’m hard-pressed to find anywhere else.
With that being said, Urschel says he's envious of Borland's decision to walk away.
Source: Bloomberg