Smith: Hoage has a degree of inspiration

Terry Hoage passed our way recently.

You may remember him as a two-time consensus All-American defensive back at Georgia, which has something to do with invoking his name in this space. The man could play the game, but there was more to him than tackles, interceptions and blocked kicks.

You see, Terry was a student athlete in the purest sense. While he came to Athens to play football - his scholarship arrangement confirmed that - he showed up on campus for another important reason, a very fundamental one, too: a degree.

All too often, football players have one primary interest in spending time on a college campus - to enhance their National Football League objectives.

While the average life of an NFL player today is fewer than four years, young athletes don't buy into the statistics. They think they will play the game until they become graybeards. It would be easier to convince them that hell is more likely to freeze over than they are to experience a short life in professional football.

Hoage was like most athletes. The thrill of competition is alluring, and you never want it to end. DeSoto never found the fountain of youth. And athletes can't play forever.

A college scholarship underwrites the cost of an education for athletes, but all too many fail to underscore perspective. Myopic and foolhardy, the NFL cannot wait. Unfortunately, a degree can. They carefully weigh their professional options and plan accordingly. Rich men don't need an education. They all think they will wind up like Herschel Walker and Peyton Manning.

This is where the story, too often, is affiliated with regret for all too many athletes. There comes a time when the body loses its quickness and its suppleness. At that juncture without a sheepskin in hand, too many athletes begin a lonely lifetime trek. No more hurrahs, no more headlines as they await the real world, which is prone to give them the back of its hand.

With Hoage, the NFL could wait. In fact, he never expected to last 13 years in the play-for-pay league. With the NFL, he took a que sera approach. He wouldn't depend on longevity in pro football to sustain him.

It should be pointed out here that few athletes are blessed with Hoage's intellect. Yet his philosophy is as basic as the cleats on everybody's Nikes. If you go to college with a degree as your primary objective, your options when your playing days are over become greatly enhanced.

"A 12-game season and a bowl game are too much," Hoage says. "Give the kids time off. Let them enjoy college life. I have always felt that football players should be students."

Recruiters today attempt to sell the importance of a degree, but the system becomes flawed when kids think NFL first and the degree becomes an afterthought.

Hoage always will be an example of what a student athlete should be. When he signed his scholarship papers, he had as much motivation to get a degree as he did to make the team.

• Loran Smith is a contributing writer.