nfl mit math phd

Suggestions or feedback?

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Machine learning
Social justice
Black holes
Classes and programs

Departments

Aeronautics and Astronautics
Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Architecture
Political Science
Mechanical Engineering

Centers, Labs, & Programs

Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)
Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
Lincoln Laboratory
School of Architecture + Planning
School of Engineering
School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Sloan School of Management
School of Science
MIT Schwarzman College of Computing

Grad student John Urschel tackles his lifelong balance of math and football in new memoir

Press contact :.

In his new book, John Urschel, former Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman and current PhD candidate in mathematics at MIT, chronicles his life, lived between math and football.

Previous image Next image

It’s been nearly two years since John Urschel retired from the NFL at the age of 26, trading a career as a professional football player at the height of his game for a chance at a PhD in mathematics at MIT. From the looks of it, he couldn’t be happier.

The former offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens is now a full-time graduate student who spends his days in Building 2, poring over academic papers and puzzling over problems in graph theory, machine learning, and numerical analysis.

In his new memoir, “Mind and Matter: A Life in Math and Football,” co-written with his wife, journalist and historian Louisa Thomas, Urschel writes about how he has balanced the messy, physically punishing world of football, with the elegant, cerebral field of mathematics.

Urschel presents his life chronologically, through chapters that alternate in focus between math and football, as it often did in real life. For instance, he writes about a moment, following an ecstatic win as part of Penn State’s offensive line, when a coach pulled him aside with a message: With a little more work, he had a shot at the NFL.

With that in mind, he writes, “I went home elated. … I left the football building with a new sense of purpose, a mission.” That same night, he opened his laptop and got to work on a paper that he planned to submit with his advisor to a top linear algebra journal. “Suddenly, surprisingly, I had a strange feeling: I felt torn,” he recalls.

For those who see Urschel as a walking contradiction, or praise him as an exceptional outlier, he poses, in his book, a challenge:

“So often, people want to divide the world into two: matter and energy. Wave and particle. Athlete and mathematician. Why can’t something (or someone) be both?”

A refuge in math

Before he could speak in full sentences, Urschel’s mother could tell that the toddler had a mind for patterns. To occupy the increasingly active youngster, she gave him workbooks filled with puzzles, which he eagerly devoured at the kitchen table. As he got older, she encouraged him further, and often competitively, with games of reasoning and calculation, such as Monopoly and Battleship. And in the grocery store, she let him keep the change if he could calculate the correct amount before the cashier rang it up.

His mother made math a game, and by doing so, lit a lifelong spark. He credits her with recognizing and nurturing his natural interests — something that he hopes to do for his own toddler, Joanna, to whom he dedicates the book.

When he was 5 years old, he saw a picture of his father in full pads, as a linebacker for the University of Alberta — his first exposure to the sport of football. From that moment, Urschel wanted to be like his dad, and he wanted to play football.

And play he did, though he writes that he wasn’t driven by any innate athletic talent.

“The only thing that set me apart from other kids when I played sports was my intensity as a competitor. I couldn’t stand losing — so much so that I would do everything in my power to try to win,” Urschel writes.

This fierce drive earned him a full ride to Penn State University, where he forged a lasting connection with the college and its football team. His seemingly disparate talents in math and football started gaining some media attention, as a bright spot for Penn State in an otherwise dark period. (The team was facing national scrutiny as a consequence of the trial of former coach Jerry Sandusky.) But the more news outlets referred to him as a “student-athlete,” the more the moniker grated against him.

“[The term ‘student-athlete’] is widely considered a joke of sorts in America,” Urschel says. “But it’s something you can actually do. It takes up a great deal of your time, and it’s not easy. But it is possible to be good at sports while tearing it up in academics.”

Urschel proved this in back-to-back years at Penn State, culminating in 2013 with a paper he co-wrote with his advisor, Ludmil Zikatanov, on the spectral bisection of graphs and connectedness, which would later be named the Urschel-Zikatanov theorem. The following year, he was drafted, in the fifth round, by the Baltimore Ravens.

He played his entire professional football career as a guard with the Ravens, in 40 games over two years, 13 of which he started. In 2015, in a full-pads practice at training camp with the team, Urschel was knocked flat with a concussion. Just weeks earlier, he had learned that he had been accepted to MIT, where he hoped to pursue a PhD in applied mathematics, during the NFL offseason.

In the weeks following the concussion, he writes: “I’d reach for a theorem that I knew I knew, and it wouldn’t be there. I would try to visualize patterns, or to stretch or twist shapes — a skill that had always come particularly easy to me — and I would be unable to see the structures or make things move.”

He eventually did regain his facility for math, along with, surprisingly, his need to compete on the field. Despite the possibility of suffering another concussion, he continued to play with the Ravens through 2015. During the off-season, in January 2016, Urschel set foot on the MIT campus to begin work on his PhD.

A quantitative mindset

“It was like stepping into my personal vision of paradise ,” Urschel writes of his first time walking through MIT’s math department in Building 2, noting the chalkboards that lined the hallways, where “casual conversations quickly became discussions of open conjectures . ” Urschel was no less impressed by MIT’s football team, whose practices he joined each Monday during that first semester.

“These students have so much to do at MIT — it’s a very stressful place,” Urschel says. “And this is Division III football. It’s not high level, and they don’t have packed stands of fans — they’re truly just playing for the love of the game.”

He says he was reluctant to return to pro football that summer, and realized throughout that season that he couldn’t wait for Sundays and the prospect of cracking open a math book and tackling problems with collaborators back at MIT and Penn State.

An article in the New York Times in July 2017 tipped the scales that had, up until then, kept math and football as equal passions for Urschel. The article outlined a brain study of 111 deceased NFL players, showing 110 of those players had signs of CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, associated with repeated blows to the head. Urschel writes that the study didn’t change his love for football, but it did make him reevaluate his choices.

Two days after reading that article, Urschel announced his retirement from the NFL and packed his bags for a permanent move to MIT.

Since then, he has focused his considerable energy on his research, as well as teaching. Last spring, he was a teaching assistant for the first time, in 18.03 (Differential Equations).

“I love teaching,” says Urschel, who hopes to be a university math professor and encourages students in class to think creatively, rather than simply memorize the formulas that they’re taught.

“I’m fighting against the idea of blindly applying formulas you just learned, and instead teaching students to use their brains,” Urschel says.

He’s also making time to visit local high schools to talk math, and STEM education in general.

“I’m a visible mathematician,” says Urschel — an understatement to be sure. “I have a responsibility to try to help popularize math, and remove some of its stigma.”

His enthusiasm for the subject is highly effective, judging from the overwhelmingly positive reviews from his 18.03 students. Above all, though, he hopes to convey the importance of a “quantitative mindset.”

“I don’t care so much if a random person on the street knows the quadratic formula,” Urschel says. “But I do care if they’re able to think through different problems, whether involving loans of two different rates, or how much you need to put in your 401k. Being capable of thinking quantitatively — it’s the single most important thing.”

Share this news article on:

Press mentions.

Graduate student John Urschel speaks with Forbes contributor Talia Milgrom-Elcott about how his mother helped inspire his love of mathematics and the importance of representation. “It’s very hard to dream of being in a career if you can’t relate to anyone who’s actually in that field,” says Urschel. “One of my main goals in life as a mathematician is to increase representation of African American mathematicians.”

Education Week

Graduate student John Urschel speaks with Education Week reporter Kevin Bushweller about his work aimed at encouraging more students of color to pursue studies in the STEM fields, particularly math. “What really matters is resources, what really matters is how much a child is nurtured and fed things,” says Urschel. “This is just my opinion, but I would say that, by and large, if I had to choose between giving a child a little bit more innate math talent or a little bit more resources, I think, really, resources is what is a very good and bigger predictor [of future success].”

Graduate student John Urschel speaks with Jamison Hensley of ESPN about his efforts aimed at empowering and encouraging more Black students to pursue careers in STEM fields. “Now more than ever, it’s really important that we highlight some of the diverse areas of mathematics that don’t typically get seen every day,” says Urschel.

Associated Press

A new book by graduate student John Urschel chronicles his decision to retire from the NFL and pursue his passion for mathematics at MIT, reports the Associated Press. Urschel explains that through his book, he “wanted to share my love of math and also perhaps train certain peoples’ thinking about math and show them some of the beauty, elegance and importance of mathematics.”

Good Morning America

Graduate student John Urschel appears on Good Morning America to discuss his new book chronicling his career and passion for football and math. “Math is something that I have loved ever since I was very little,” explains Urschel. “I love puzzles, I love problem solving. Math, truly, is just a set of tools to try to solve problems in this world.

New York Times

Writing for The New York Times , graduate student John Urschel recounts how his high school football coaches motivated him, noting that similar tactics might encourage more children to study math. “There are many ways to be an effective teacher, just as there are many ways to be an effective coach,” writes Urschel. “But all good teachers, like good coaches, communicate that they care about your goals.”

Graduate student John Urschel speaks with Karen Given of WBUR’s Only a Game about how his mother helped encourage his passion for mathematics. "Most kids get their allowance by, you know, mowing the lawn — things like this," Urschel says. "My mom, because she recognized that I was strong in math, wanted to encourage me with respect to math."

TIME reporter Sean Gregory visits MIT to speak with graduate student John Urschel about his new book, and his passion for both mathematics and football. “The United States, more than any other culture, has the strange marriage of athletics and academics,” Urschel says. “I thought it was important to show that this is something that really can co-exist.”

Graduate student John Urschel discusses his new book and passion for both math and football on Fox and Friends . “Football coaches, they tell their best players to dream big,” says Urschel. “I would love to see math teachers telling their students you can be an elite mathematician, you can be a top physicist, you can even dream to be the next Einstein.”

Graduate student John Urschel visits the Today Show to discuss his new book and what inspired him to pursue a PhD in mathematics. Urschel explains that his mother tried to ensure that “whatever I wanted to be the only thing that would limit me was a lack of talent, bad luck, lack of hard work, but it wasn’t going to be the household I was born into or a lack of resources.”

Boston Globe

Boston Globe reporter Ben Volin speaks with graduate student John Urschel about his new book “Mind and Matter: A Life in Math and Football.” “I love solving sort of interesting and tough problems that have to do with our world in some way,” says Urschel of his dreams for after he graduates from MIT. “And I also love teaching.”

Previous item Next item

Big issues on the table at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference

From football to physics

MIT Football tackles diversity and inclusion conversations

Guests at MIT's Better World event at the Newseum explored exhibits highlighting MIT invention and innovation.

A record crowd in Washington celebrates MIT’s culture of innovation and discovery

More mit news.

Two rows of MRI brain scans with a line graph in between. Several scans show small blobs of red. In the graph there is a spike corresponding to the brain scan with the largest red spot

Reevaluating an approach to functional brain imaging

Read full story →

A colorful, 3D computer image comprised mainly of spheres, representing atoms, arranged on and along planes. Some of the spheres are connected by tubes (atomic bonds)

Propelling atomically layered magnets toward green computers

John Swoboda stands outside next to equipment resembling antennae.

MIT Haystack scientists prepare a constellation of instruments to observe the solar eclipse’s effects

A montage of solar eclipse photos. In the top row, the moon's shadow gradually covers the sun's disk, moving from upper right to lower left. The center row shows three images of totality and near-totality. The bottom row shows the solar disk reemerging.

Q&A: Tips for viewing the 2024 solar eclipse

Icons representing renewable energy, energy storage, robotics, biomedicine, and education over a electronic circuitry

Unlocking new science with devices that control electric power

Eight people in costumes pose while on stage. Some are dressed like pirates, clowns, and some wear vintage clothing.

Drinking from a firehose — on stage

More news on MIT News homepage →

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, USA

Map (opens in new window)
Events (opens in new window)
People (opens in new window)
Careers (opens in new window)
Accessibility
Social Media Hub
MIT on Facebook
MIT on YouTube
MIT on Instagram

Ex–NFL Player John Urschel Gave up the Game for a Ph.D.—and a Life—in Math

O ne recent afternoon in Cambridge, Mass., John Urschel and I strolled along the Charles River on the way to his office at MIT, where he’s pursuing a Ph.D. in mathematics. We were passing some of the MIT athletic facilities when I asked Urschel a seemingly mundane question. Where’s the football field? Urschel’s response was quick: “You’re looking at it.”

Now, I’m no MIT math major. But I’m bright enough to know I was staring straight at a baseball diamond. Such a slip would have been innocent enough, if Urschel hadn’t spent three seasons as an offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens.

In the summer of 2017, Urschel announced he was retiring from the NFL, at age 26, to pursue his mathematics doctorate full time. His decision came two days after the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study showing that chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative disease, had been found in the brains of 110 of 111 ex–NFL players examined by Boston University researchers. Yes, the findings factored into Urschel’s decision. But he insists they didn’t tip the scales. He had been thinking hard about stepping away, as he was already taking classes at MIT. Still, the media painted Urschel’s choice as more evidence that smart young pros, fearing brain trauma, were fleeing the game. Urschel’s story proved irresistible: the MIT mathematician had calculated that the NFL just wasn’t worth it.

After I inform Urschel that no, he wasn’t looking at a football field, he smiles. “I just don’t pay attention,” he says. But Urschel doesn’t object when I cite his slip as a signal that he’s left football far behind. Nearly two years after retiring, he says that while he misses the paycheck—who wouldn’t?—he hasn’t felt a single pang of regret on football Sundays, when he’s wrestling with theorems instead of 300-lb. linemen. “It’s a pretty cool life,” he says. “I wake up in the morning, I walk to my office. I think all day.”

Urschel dedicates much of his new memoir, Mind and Matter: A Life in Math and Football—written with his partner, the journalist Louisa Thomas—to espousing the importance of problem-solving. “It’s a strange thing,” says Urschel in the living room of the Cambridge apartment he shares with Thomas and their year-old daughter, Joanna. “Some people will sort of joke about, ‘Oh, I was never good at math.’ But people don’t joke about being illiterate. Being mathematically illiterate is quite a dangerous thing.”

Growing up in Buffalo, n.y., Urschel began his love affair with numbers early. When his attorney mother took him shopping, she’d let him keep the change if he calculated the 8% sales tax before the cashier rang it up. The summer before eighth grade, he audited a calculus class at the University at Buffalo, where his dad, a surgeon, was pursuing a master’s in economics. Soon, the junior high kid was helping college students finish problem sets.

He also fell for football. Urschel writes that when he was in high school, he and his father, who played collegiately in Canada, banged helmets in the backyard. In today’s concussion-conscious world, doctors frown upon this kind of head-to-head contact. Even so, Urschel says, “These are actually some of my fondest moments with my dad.”

Urschel earned a football scholarship to Penn State, where he majored in math. By the time the Ravens selected him in the fifth round of the 2014 NFL draft, he had his master’s degree and had published a paper in a top linear-algebra journal. (Urschel specializes in graph theory, the branch of advanced math that studies the connectivity of networks.) After a rookie season in which he started three games, plus two in the playoffs, he felt ashamed that he was putting off his Ph.D. work until he finished pro football. “I felt like I was selling myself short,” he says. So he applied to MIT’s Ph.D. program and was accepted. The American Mathematical Society named a theorem after Urschel and his co-author. “Let G be a finite connected undirected weighted graph without self-loops …,” the Urschel-Zikatanov theorem begins.

Before the 2015 season, Urschel had suffered a concussion that left him unable to process high-level math for a few months, but he returned to the field. By the summer of 2017, he was weighing his options more closely. He was settling into Ph.D. life, and Thomas was pregnant. Pounding heads seemed unappealing. Then that CTE study was released. Two days later, he informed Baltimore coach John Harbaugh that he was retiring, thinking no one would notice. But his phone rang off the hook. He didn’t go outside for days. “It was one of the most unpleasant moments of my life,” he says.

A couple of years removed, Urschel insists he doesn’t worry that any potential symptoms of CTE—forgetfulness, mood swings, depression—will hinder his career. Sure, as an offensive lineman he absorbed hits to his head. But he points out that just because more than 99% of the brains examined in the study had CTE doesn’t mean more than 99% of all ex-players do. Such studies have a self-selection bias: many players offer up their brains because they think they may be damaged. So how many players does he suspect have CTE? “It’s not epsilon close to zero,” he says. “And it’s not some large constant fraction of 100. You know what I’m saying? It’s bounded away from both.”

Books with titles like Partial Differential Equations in Action and Hierarchical Matrices populate Urschel’s MIT office, along with the usual grad-student fare that fuels late-night research: cans of black beans, sardines and StarKist tuna. Urschel geeks out about the math department’s espresso machine and the equations that fill hallway chalkboards. Math can be as cutthroat as football: Urschel won’t share the subject of his dissertation, lest competition come after it. “But anything on the chalkboard,” he says in the hall, “is fair game.”

Sports teams, which have been staffing up their analytics operations, have come calling with offers. But academic life holds much more appeal. When I ask him to explain the math of the two-point conversion, he does with reluctance. “This is as low-level as you get,” he says. He draws a series of probability tree diagrams in chalk: let’s just say if your team’s down 14 with five minutes to go and scores a touchdown, the coach needs to go for two.

Urschel would rather spend his time promoting math. He visits classrooms around the country. In early May he spoke at the National Math Festival in D.C. He recommends books about calculus via his Twitter feed. “I could obsess over a problem for days, for weeks, thinking of nothing else, the way someone might obsess over a girl,” he writes in his own book. “But no girl I had ever met brought me the singular sense of engagement that I got from proving something difficult.”

He also wants athletes, at all levels, to know they don’t need to compromise their intellect. “The United States, more than any other culture, has the strange marriage of athletics and academics,” Urschel says. “I thought it was important to show that this is something that really can co-exist.” He’s 350 miles from Baltimore but might as well be 35,000. Urschel turns off the office lights, and heads home to eat dinner and finish up some work. More equations await.

More Must-Reads From TIME

Jane Fonda Champions Climate Action for Every Generation
Passengers Are Flying up to 30 Hours to See Four Minutes of the Eclipse
Biden’s Campaign Is In Trouble. Will the Turnaround Plan Work?
Essay: The Complicated Dread of Early Spring
Why Walking Isn’t Enough When It Comes to Exercise
The Financial Influencers Women Actually Want to Listen To
The Best TV Shows to Watch on Peacock
Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time

Write to Sean Gregory at [email protected]

This mathematician had another career: professional football player

Regina Barber, photographed for NPR, 6 June 2022, in Washington DC. Photo by Farrah Skeiky for NPR.

Regina G. Barber

Rachel Carlson

Rebecca Ramirez

Mathematician John Urschel contains multitudes. These days, he researches linear algebra at MIT, but he also had another career: professional NFL football player. The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Im hide caption

Mathematician John Urschel contains multitudes. These days, he researches linear algebra at MIT, but he also had another career: professional NFL football player.

As kids, some of us dream of multiple careers: being an astronaut AND the next president. Or digging up dinosaurs AND selling out concert stadiums. As we get older, there's pressure to pick one. But what if we didn't have to?

After all, John Urschel didn't.

These days, he's a mathematician and professor at MIT, where he researches linear algebra. But before that career took off, he played football. First, as student at Pennsylvania State University, and later, for the Baltimore Ravens.

When Urschel started college, he was on a third path: become an engineer. But as he took classes, he loved the way his math professors helped him go beyond numbers, and prove why equations were true. He says one professor offered to do research with him, which eventually helped him realize he wanted to pursue a PhD in math. So, he pivoted from juggling engineering and football — to juggling math and football.

"I was simultaneously falling in love with, you know, math as an actual career, taking all of these college math classes, while also trying to be the best football player I could be," he remembers.

Urschel says that often involved packing many things, like weight training and classes, into the early morning. "Like I was the person who was trying to take the 6 a.m. slot ... I want the 8 a.m., 9 a.m. classes so I could do all the football things I needed to do, do all the math things I needed to do in a day. "

He went on to work full-time as a professional football player at the same time he was a full-time PhD student at MIT.

"I was taking three courses, and I was doing P-sets in Baltimore ... via correspondence," he says.

But he notes that his career path is also unusual for much more common reasons: Typically, an MIT math professor would have, as a student, competed in international math competitions, never taken time off and studied at an Ivy League institution for undergrad.

From his atypical career path, Urschel has learned a few lessons that, when prompted, he'll offer up:

First, do not play the comparison game. Do not focus on prestige or how much and how far long other people are in comparison to you. It's something he reminds his students of a lot. It can be a very negative spiral.

"That's a really unhealthy and really unhappy place to be," he says.

Second, be critical of yourself.

"It's really important, if you like something and you do want to be good at it, to be critical of yourself," he says. But, he emphasizes, "you should only be critical of yourself and hard on yourself compared to your previous self." Check in with yourself and ask questions like, How am I improving? How am I going to be better than I was two months ago?

Got science to share? Email us at [email protected] .

Listen to Short Wave on Spotify , Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts .

Today's episode was produced by Rachel Carlson. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Brit Hanson checked the facts. Becky Brown was the audio engineer.

John Urschel
Baltimore Ravens

John Urschel recounts his journey from the NFL to MIT

The former Raven talks about his new memoir, ‘Mind and Matter,’ driving a Versa and why there are so few blacks in higher mathematics

Up Next From Sports

As a young boy, John Urschel would amuse himself for hours solving puzzles and breezing through math workbooks. By the time he was 13, he had audited a college-level calculus class.

He was also no slouch on the football field. A two-star prospect out of high school in western New York state, Urschel was a low-priority recruit to Penn State. He worked his way into the starting lineup and later became a two-time All-Big Ten offensive lineman. He won the Sullivan Award, given to the most outstanding amateur athlete in the country, as well as the Campbell Trophy, recognizing college football’s top scholar-athlete.

Urschel completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics while at Penn State. He even taught a couple of math classes while playing for the Nittany Lions. After college, he was drafted in the fifth round of the 2014 NFL draft and signed a four-year, $2.4 million contract with the Baltimore Ravens.

Urschel loves football — the fury, the camaraderie, the adrenaline rush — and he enjoyed knowing that he was playing at the highest level. But he loves math, too, and he wanted to pursue that passion as far as his ability would take him.

Urschel got a taste of how difficult it could be to do both when he suffered a concussion during his second NFL training camp. The brain injury kept him off the field for a couple of weeks. It took longer than that for him to regain the ability to do math again. Still, the following spring he passed the qualifying exam that allowed him to enroll in a full-time doctorate program in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Penguin Press

It was a great achievement, but it also meant he had two demanding jobs. By his third year in the league, he was spending more time taking stock of his life. What did his future hold? How long would his body hold up to the brutality of football? How good a mathematician could he be if he devoted himself to it full time?

He was fine financially. He earned $1.6 million over his first three years in the league while driving a Nissan Versa and living with a roommate. His big expenses were math books and coffee. He estimates that he lived on less than $25,000 a year.

In the end, he retired from the NFL at age 26 to pursue becoming a mathematician. Urschel, now 27, has about one year left before he earns his doctorate at MIT. After that, he has his sights set on a career in academia.

Urschel chronicled his uncommon journey in a new memoir, Mind and Matter: A Life in Math and Football, co-written with his wife, Louisa Thomas. The Undefeated recently talked to the former lineman about his new book, his view of college sports, the safety of football and his twin careers.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Why did you write this book?

I really wanted to write something that conveyed mathematics in a very beautiful light. The publisher kept pushing me to put more of myself in it. At the end of the day, the final product is a memoir that also describes my relationship with both mathematics and football.

What do you hope people take away from it?

I hope they take away a number of things, not least of which is that it’s OK to have multiple interests, it’s OK to have multiple passions, that you don’t just have to be one thing. Also, I hope people take away a newfound appreciation of mathematics that might feel a little different than sort of what they experienced in school.

Who do you see as your primary audience for the book? First of all, I would really like to reach middle school to high school kids who may be athletes but might have some interest in academics and STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] in some sense. Second, I would say anyone who simply enjoys football and math, because there’s a lot of both in this book.

Did you ever feel pigeonholed coming up?

Yes, I think I was, but I really didn’t pay too much attention to it. These things might bother some people, but I just usually viewed these things as an opportunity to change people’s mindsets.

Do you think there was some skepticism because you’re a football player, that this guy can’t be so good at math?

There initially was some skepticism, which I think was healthy. I completely understand why there was skepticism, and I think it was a reasonable thing.

Do you consider yourself a genius?

What is a genius anyway?

I don’t know, and that’s why I don’t really consider myself one. Listen, I’m someone who is very good at math. I’ve been very good at math ever since I was little. A lot of hard work has gone into me being at the place where I am in mathematics today. With respect to football, I was a decent athlete. I don’t consider myself an extremely good athlete. I considered myself extremely hardworking.

Were you ever discouraged from pursuing high-level academics while playing football at Penn State?

I didn’t get any pushback from my teammates. I did get some pushback from Penn State football early on. But I do want to clarify the sense in which I got pushback, because I think I got pushback in a very good way. It wasn’t like they were saying, ‘Oh, John, this is going to take up way too much of your time.’ It was more of them saying, ‘John, let’s not take such a hard track so early on. Let’s move slow and steady, because college courses are a lot tougher than high school classes, and you think you are good at math from high school, but college is different.’ After my first fall semester, the academic advisers really picked up on the fact that, yeah, they don’t need to worry about me.

Do you think college athletes should be paid?

Of course they should be paid. That’s not an unbiased opinion. I’m extremely biased. Something is fundamentally wrong with the system. That’s obvious. But what’s the answer? I don’t know. Should all sorts of football players be paid? Certainly not. I don’t think the football players at, let’s say, the University of Buffalo are being exploited. Sorry. Does this football program make money? But we look at the Alabamas of the world and, well, clearly these football players are really contributing a lot and they’re the source of a great deal of revenue. How can we give them more? Because I do think they deserve more, but the right way to do it is sort of uncertain to me.

What do mathematicians do?

What a mathematician does is he uses the tools of mathematics to try to solve very complicated and important problems in this world. In some areas of mathematics, mathematicians try to solve fundamental ideas in physics. In some areas of mathematics, mathematicians are trying to understand and perfect those things in machine learning, which have great practical importance on our world. You have mathematicians who are working on Wall Street. The only thing they’re making is money, but they’re making quite a lot of it. Mathematicians work for Google. They work for Amazon. They’re the people who help come up with the technology and the algorithms in your iPhone.

How did the fear of concussions and the prospect of CTE [chronic traumatic encephalopathy] factor into your decision to retire from the NFL?

Very nominally. It is something you have to take into account, but the risks were something I had been aware of for a large part of my football career. But I also wanted to create more time for mathematics. I wanted to spend more time raising my daughter and I wanted to be in good overall physical health. You know, I want to be able to walk around when I am 60.

Did you really live on $25,000 a year while playing pro football?

Yeah, maybe even a little less than that.

You’re kidding me. How is that possible?

I’m still a very frugal person, and frugal might not even be the right word. Even people around me will tell you, it’s not like I’m attempting to save money. I don’t do things like budget. I do the things I enjoy and I buy things that bring me joy. The things that bring me joy are typically like math books, maybe coffee at a coffee shop. Yeah, I guess luckily for me, both of those things are incredibly cheap.

Baltimore Ravens offensive guard John Urschel blocks during a game against the New York Jets at Met Life Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in October 2016.

Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire

So, no bling for you. No big Land Rover.

No, no. My car was a used Nissan Versa I bought in college. I kept it my whole career, although I’m not that sad to say I did let the Versa go because, well, I’m in Boston now. What do I need a car for?

In what ways do you miss football? One of things I do miss about football is being on a team, being close with a bunch of guys, going through the whole deal of pursuing a common goal.

How do you replace the rush that you derive from football?

Yeah, that’s just something you can’t replace. You’re just not going to get that feeling from mathematics. As much as I love math — and there’s many amazing, beautiful things about math — you’re not getting that from mathematics. You’re getting a very different feeling, but it’s also quite amazing: this feeling of fighting against the unknown, this feeling of sort of trying to sort of go where no man has gone before, this idea of trying to solve problems that no one has solved before.

Why are there so few African Americans in math?

You look at, let’s say, all of the elite mathematicians at MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Cal Tech, Princeton, and maybe there’s like one or two African Americans. It’s not because these places have decided we just don’t like hiring African American mathematicians. The fact is that there’s just not many of us. And the sort of root of this, I believe, is not anything that happens in Ph.D. programs. The large part of the damage is done before a student even steps foot on a college campus. The large majority of American mathematicians in the United States, they are Caucasian, they are male and they generally come from pretty good backgrounds. And, I mean, it’s a sobering realization that there are brilliant, brilliant young minds being born into this country, but either they’re being born the ‘wrong’ gender or the ‘wrong’ color or being born into a household that doesn’t have the same opportunities as some other household. And these brilliant minds are being lost. I do believe a large contributing factor is sort of educational inequality.

One final thing: Would you allow a child of yours to play football?

I would, in high school. But not before then. There’s a big focus on college football players, NFL players and health in a number of ways. But the thing that people don’t talk about enough is young kids playing tackle football, contact football, before their bodies and brains are even developed. And that’s something that me, personally, I’m not a fan of. But in high school? Certainly. I think football is not for everyone, certainly not, but if it’s something that you think you’re interested in, I think it’s an amazing sport.

Michael A. Fletcher is a senior writer at The Undefeated. He is a native New Yorker and longtime Baltimorean who enjoys live music and theater.

Of The Essence
Celebrity News
If Not For My Girls
The State Of R&B
Time Of Essence
SSENSE X ESSENCE
2023 Best In Black Fashion Awards
2023 Fashion House
Fashion News
Accessories
2024 Best In Beauty Awards
Girls United: Beautiful Possibilities
Relationships
Bridal Bliss
Lifestyle News
Health & Wellness
ESSENCE Eats
Food & Drink
Money & Career
Latest News
Black Futures
Paint The Polls Black
Essence Holiday Gift Guide 2023
2024 Black Women In Hollywood
2024 ESSENCE Hollywood House
2024 ESSENCE Film Festival
2024 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture
2023 Wellness House
2023 Black Women In Hollywood
Girls United

WHERE BLACK CULTURE, COMMUNITY AND CONSCIOUSNESS MEET

Sign up for essence newsletters the keep the black women at the forefront of conversation., former nfl player john urschel joins mit faculty as a math professor.

Former NFL Player John Urschel Joins MIT Faculty As A Math Professor

Former Baltimore Ravens player John Urschel continues to make power plays off the field several years after retiring from the NFL. Urschel was recently hired as a professor of mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), according to a press release by the university.

The former NFL player is one of 16 new faculty members who joined MIT’s School of Science for the Fall 2023 semester. On his faculty bio page, Urschel shares that his area of interest “largely consists of topics in numerical linear algebra, spectral graph theory, and certain topics in theoretical machine learning.”

During his time in the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens, Urschel worked towards his Ph.D. in mathematics at MIT. While his teammates and colleagues knew he was pursuing a degree, they had no idea he was using his free time to publish six academic papers.

He made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for his work as an award-winning mathematician at 25 in 2017.

“I felt actually kind of guilty,” Urschel explained in a Sports Illustrated interview. “I was actually kind of ashamed of myself. I was doing math while playing, but I always prided myself on doing what I wanted to do and not budging on things.”

He was dedicated to football and mathematics and demonstrated his commitment to doing what he loved, even if it meant juggling two demanding pursuits.

However, after three seasons, Urschel eventually retired from the NFL in 2017 to pursue his passion for advanced theoretical mathematics. In 2021, he earned his Ph.D. from MIT, concentrating in matrix analysis and computations, emphasizing theoretical conclusions and assurances for practical situations.

ESPN reported that Urschel said he wanted to diversify the math field, where only seven percent of professors are Black. He aims to empower Black children to follow similar paths in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

COMPANY INFORMATION Our Company Customer Service Essence Ventures Change Your Address Contact Us Job Opportunities Internships Media Kit SUBSCRIBE Newsletters Give a Gift of ESSENCE Magazine Tablet Edition FOLLOW US MORE ON ESSENCE Home Love Celebrity Beauty Hair Fashion ESSENCE festival ESSENCE.com is part of ESSENCE Communications, Inc.

John Urschel Studied At MIT As A Ph.D. Student During His NFL Career, Now He’s A Math Professor At The School

J ohn Urschel has been making power plays on and off the field for years. From the NFL to the world of mathematics, the former football player’s analytical skills have equipped him for a life filled with success.

According to an ESPN NFL post on Instagram, Urschel was recently hired as a professor of mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and while one may think he’s living out his retirement dreams, his journey to the position shows his love for math was always there.

What’s more, prior to being drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in 2014, Urschel earned both a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree while playing football for Pennsylvania State University.

The Best Of Both Worlds

Much like his college career, Urschel’s time in the league was split between studying and playing football, as he was wearing his cleats by day and working toward his Ph.D. by night at MIT.

In fact, throughout the course of his three years in the NFL with the Ravens, his fellow teammates and colleagues knew that he was working toward a degree, but had no idea that he was using his free time to publish six academic papers.

Ultimately, he made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for his work as a respected scientist.

“I felt actually kind of guilty,” Urschel explained in a 2017 Sports Illustrated interview. “I was actually kind of ashamed of myself. I was doing math while I was playing, but I always prided myself on doing what I wanted to do and not budging on things.”

There have been many times that Urschel had to make the decision between his love for math and his love for the game.

Furthering His Love For Mathematics

Per ESPN, t he now 32-year-old decided on early retirement in 2017 to take his interest in advanced theoretical mathematics head-on, completing his Ph.D. at MIT in 2021.

According to his MIT bio, Urschel currently “is a mathematician focused on matrix analysis and computations, with an emphasis on theoretical results and provable guarantees for practical problems. His research interests include numerical linear algebra, spectral graph theory, and topics in theoretical machine learning.”

His love for football, however, never departed as he is also serving a three-year term on the College Football Playoff selection committee. It looks like John Urschel is living the best of both worlds!

John Urschel Studied At MIT As A Ph.D. Student During His NFL Career, Now He’s A Math Professor At The School

Grad student John Urschel tackles his lifelong balance of math and football in new memoir

For those who see Urschel as a walking contradiction, or praise him as an exceptional outlier, he poses, in his book, a challenge:

“So often, people want to divide the world into two: matter and energy. Wave and particle. Athlete and mathematician. Why can’t something (or someone) be both?”

A refuge in math

And play he did, though he writes that he wasn’t driven by any innate athletic talent.

A quantitative mindset

He says he was reluctant to return to pro football that summer and realized throughout that season that he couldn’t wait for Sundays and the prospect of cracking open a math book and tackling problems with collaborators back at MIT and Penn State.

Two days after reading that article, Urschel announced his retirement from the NFL and packed his bags for a permanent move to MIT.

Since then, he has focused his considerable energy on his research, as well as teaching. Last spring, he was a teaching assistant for the first time, in 18.03 (Differential Equations).

“I love teaching,” says Urschel, who hopes to be a university math professor and encourages students in class to think creatively, rather than simply memorize the formulas that they’re taught.

“I’m fighting against the idea of blindly applying formulas you just learned, and instead teaching students to use their brains,” Urschel says.

He’s also making time to visit local high schools to talk math, and STEM education in general.

“I’m a visible mathematician,” says Urschel — an understatement to be sure. “I have a responsibility to try to help popularize math, and remove some of its stigma.”

This article was republished with permission from the MIT News Office .

Open Learning newsletter

October 10, 2023

Former NFL Player Is Now A Math Professor At MIT

Nationwide — Former Baltimore Ravens player John Urschel has made a remarkable career pivot after retiring early from the NFL at the age of 26. Urschel is now a math professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

While playing in the NFL, Urschel pursued his Ph.D. in mathematics at MIT. Surprisingly, he managed to publish six academic papers during his football career, a fact not widely known among his teammates and colleagues.

In 2017, Urschel earned a spot on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list for his outstanding work in mathematics at just 25 years old.

He was truly dedicated to both football and mathematics, demonstrating his commitment by juggling these demanding pursuits.

“I felt actually kind of guilty,” Urschel told Sports Illustrated . “I was actually kind of ashamed of myself. I was doing math while playing, but I always prided myself on doing what I wanted to do and not budging on things.”

In 2017, after three NFL seasons, Urschel retired to fully pursue his passion for advanced theoretical mathematics. In 2021, he completed his Ph.D. at MIT, focusing on matrix analysis and computations, with a strong emphasis on theoretical applications for real-world situations.

Now, Urschel was hired as one of the 16 new faculty members in MIT’s School of Science for the Fall 2023 semester. On his faculty bio page, he mentioned his interests in numerical linear algebra, spectral graph theory, and certain aspects of theoretical machine learning.

Moreover, Urschel reportedly aspires to increase diversity in the field of mathematics, where only seven percent of professors are Black. His goal is to inspire young Black students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

John Urschel

MIT Technology Review

Newsletters

From the NFL to MIT: The Double Life of John Urschel

Peter Dizikes archive page

A set diagram depicts the places where different groups of objects overlap. Example: in the United States, there are about 1,700 professional football players, and thousands of people pursuing PhDs in math. In 2017, a diagram of those two sets overlaps in exactly one place.

On an overcast day in late winter, that place is the Norbert Wiener Common Room in MIT’s Department of Mathematics, where John Urschel is sitting at a table, chatting. Urschel is an offensive lineman with the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, a three-year pro with 40 regular-season games played and a couple of playoff starts on his football résumé. He is also a doctoral candidate in math at MIT who has passed his qualifying exams and has nine published or accepted research papers on his academic résumé.

Yes, there are plenty of bright people in the NFL, and plenty of athletic math students in America. But no one else has his combination of high-level achievement in professional sports and the seminar room.

As a result, Urschel has been profiled in Sports Illustrated and the Washington Post and featured on HBO’s Real Sports ; written columns (featuring math puzzles) for The Players’ Tribune (see a sample in Puzzle Corner ); and even appeared in a nationally broadcast television commercial last season for Bose headphones, along with J.J. Watt, the superstar defensive end of the Houston Texans. Walk down MIT’s Infinite Corridor at the right time of day and you’ll see a 6'3", 300-pound celebrity athlete striding along with the crowds of students, staff, professors, and tour groups.

But why is a highly paid pro football player grinding through problems in the math study room? The answer becomes evident through the pure enthusiasm Urschel radiates when he talks about his life as a scholar at MIT.

“I really, really like it here,” he says. “We’ve just got such a great collection of so many brilliant mathematicians in different fields, applied and pure mathematicians, under the same roof. I’m just blessed to be around these brilliant people at the pinnacle of their respective fields.”

That enthusiasm has been brewing for most of Urschel’s life. When he was growing up in Buffalo, his mother gave him puzzles to work on; to this day, he explains math to non-mathematicians by calling it a form of puzzle solving. He did not play football, on the other hand, until high school. Yet he did well enough to play as an undergraduate for Penn State, a school he chose partly to improve his prospects of reaching the NFL.

At Penn State, Urschel also started working with Ludmil Zikatanov, a professor with whom he has coauthored four of his nine papers. Those papers cover areas such as spectral graph theory and feature titles like “Spectral Bisection of Graphs and Connectedness”—which appeared in Linear Algebra and Its Applications in the spring of 2014, around the time the Ravens drafted him. Urschel emerged from Penn State in 2013 with both his undergraduate and master’s degrees in math.

“He is the best master’s student that I have ever had,” says Zikatanov. Despite the extraordinary degree of commitment required to play football at his level, Urschel remains fully committed to pursuing math at the highest level, too, Zikatanov says. “He works hard, all the time.”

The 2014 paper Urschel and Zikatanov published together updates a theorem from the 1970s about how to divide a network—picture a social network—into equal parts while cutting as few connections as possible and leaving the connections intact within each half. A 2016 paper the two published together in Linear and Multilinear Algebra (“On the Maximal Error of Spectral Approximation of Graph Bisection”) evaluates how precisely such work can be performed.

“In math, you have to be comfortable with failure,” Urschel says. “In football, that should never be a thing.”

As a doctoral student, Urschel is now working with Michel Goemans, an expert in combinatorial optimization, which seeks optimal solutions to problems with a large but finite set of solutions. This work can be applied to logistics or operations: determining, say, the shortest itinerary for a trip with many stops in it is a well-known use of combinatorial optimization. But whatever subfield of math Urschel pursues, he is likely to bring his characteristic doggedness. “When he gets into a problem, he doesn’t let go,” Zikatanov observes.

If getting ahead in math requires untold hours of deep effort, though, Urschel says that achieving a publishable result is gratifying because of all that labor.

“It’s the sum of just so much work,” he says. “And how often you fail—and how often people collectively fail at a puzzle—increases the implicit toughness of the problem, and how good you feel when you solve a tough problem.” After MIT, and after football, Urschel wants to continue the research he loves as a university professor.

As much as he enjoys discussing math, Urschel can quickly shift to talking about the toughest opponent he has faced on a football field: Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. “Just a freak athlete—his size, athleticism, strength,” he says. “Best defensive lineman I’ve ever gone against.” Among edge rushers, Urschel quickly cites Watt as a tough matchup. “J.J. Watt’s real. The dude is like—I think he weighs 300 pounds, and he is tall, and he is big, and he is fast. And the worst thing is, he’s smart.” And no, Urschel says, he is not just naming Watt because they filmed that Bose commercial together: “I’ve also had to block him.”

Much of the media coverage Urschel receives emphasizes the disparity of his interests. But his two vocations have similarities. After all, both require years of intensive training and a strong competitive drive. In both academia and football, Urschel has advisors and coaches who want him to succeed but are obligated to tell him when he must perform better.

Urschel grants a few parallels between studying at MIT and playing in the NFL, but he says the comparisons go only so far. “In math, you have to be comfortable with failure,” he says. “In football, that should never be a thing.” Working on math problems, he explains, involves trial and error to an extent that would never be tolerated on a football field.

“You have something you want to prove, and you try different ways to get at it,” he says. “You try this way, and it doesn’t work. You try that way—it doesn’t work. Try this way, and it seems to work—then you think about it, and you’re like, ‘No, it doesn’t work.’ You do it again and again and again. And finally, maybe, you get it. And when you get it, it’s an amazing feeling, the best feeling in the world.”

That is certainly a better feeling than the one Urschel experienced two summers ago during Ravens training camp, when he suffered a concussion that kept him out of action for nearly two weeks. And it may seem irrational for a star scholar to expose himself to potential brain damage. But “I accept the risk,” Urschel told the Washington Post last fall, and he confirms that his attitude has not changed. That attitude may also be informed by the fact that his father, a college football player, became a surgeon without evident problems.

Although his mother tries to talk him into quitting at the end of every season, Urschel isn’t ready to give it up. As he wrote in his essay “ Why I Still Play Football ” in The Players’ Tribune , the allure for him isn’t money or fame. It’s visceral and physical. “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,” he wrote. “This is a feeling I’m (for lack of a better word) addicted to, and I’m hard-pressed to find anywhere else.”

Indeed, it’s the sheer enjoyment he derives from both pursuits that has carried him this far. That pleasure is evident as Urschel pauses, smiles, and circles back to the topic of his MIT studies.

“Did I mention that I really, really like the math department here?”

Update: On July 27, John Urschel retired from the NFL at age 26. Although his announcement came two days after the release of a study linking chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) to playing football, he did not mention the study when writing about his decision on Twitter:

pic.twitter.com/UmIQa2kn5e — John Urschel (@JohnCUrschel) July 27, 2017

Keep Reading

Most popular, large language models can do jaw-dropping things. but nobody knows exactly why..

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

Will Douglas Heaven archive page

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

The problem with plug-in hybrids? Their drivers.

Plug-in hybrids are often sold as a transition to EVs, but new data from Europe shows we’re still underestimating the emissions they produce.

Casey Crownhart archive page

Stay connected

Get the latest updates from mit technology review.

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at [email protected] with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.

The Inventory

Support Quartz

Fund next-gen business journalism with $10 a month

Free Newsletters

An NFL player was just accepted to the math PhD program at MIT

The National Football League offseason is supposed to be a time for players to relax, recover from the brutality of the prior season, and prepare for the next one.

Not for Baltimore Ravens player John Urschel. The 6’3”, 305-pound offensive lineman will begin a PhD in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this year. The Hulk-like math geek, who graduated from Penn State with a 4.0 grade point average, will study spectral graph theory, numerical linear algebra, and machine learning.

In 2015, Urschel played in the NFL playoffs for the Ravens while simultaneously (pdf) working on a paper on graph eigenfunctions. (What have you done lately?) The paper, entitled, “A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fielder Vector of Graph Laplacians,” is available online .

NFL teams typically hold team workouts and other organized team activities (often shorted to “OTAs”) during the spring months, before official training camp begins in July. It’s unclear if Urschel will have to miss any of those activities in order to focus on his doctorate.

Urschel, who started in seven of the Ravens’ 16 games this past season, signed a four-year, $2 million contract with the team in 2014—small, for NFL standards. Perhaps a PhD will increase his profile, if not his player value.

In an illuminating Q&A with a publication of the American Mathematical Society, Urschel told interviewer Stephen Miller, vice chair of the math department at Rutgers University, that he spends time on road trips reading math books and research papers, but is able to separate his two interests when he has to.

… [I]f I’m thinking about math on the football field, this is going to get me killed. So that’s just survival instinct. And when I’m doing math, it’s all encompassing and I’m 100 percent in it, and there’s really nothing else to think about when I’m doing math.

In March 2015, Urschel wrote in the Players Tribune —the athletes-only journal started by former New York Yankee Derek Jeter—about why he continues to play football, given the injury risks and his flourishing career in mathematics. “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,” he wrote. “I’m not playing for some social status associated with being an elite athlete.”

“I play because I love the game. I love hitting people.”

As is practically tradition for NFL players, Urschel was diagnosed with a concussion last year. But it was a bigger deal for him than for most—not only did it jeopardize his health and his playing time, but it risked his future off the field as a mathematician. Urschel vowed to continue math-ing.

Urschel is not the first, or even the largest, professional athlete to ever try for a doctoral degree. NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, who stands at 7’1”, earned an EdD in education from Barry University in Florida in 2012.

📬 Sign up for the Daily Brief

Our free, fast, and fun briefing on the global economy, delivered every weekday morning.

Interview With Former Pro Football Player and Math PhD Candidate John Urschel

Giving a Math Presentation at Penn State

The following interview by the Faculty Newsletter (FNL) with John Urschel (JU) was held on October 26 of this year.

FNL: Today’s the 26th of October, I think, 2017.

JU: I’m a mathematician. Don’t ask me what day it is.

FNL: I read that you grew up in Canada.

JU: I was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I moved to the United States when I was four.

FNL: Where did you live?

JU: I lived in Buffalo, but I split time between Canada and the U.S. My father lived in Canada; my mother lived in the States.

FNL: And when do you remember being first interested in football?

JU: I was fascinated with it when I was younger. My father played college football, so when I visited him, I saw photos of him playing.

FNL: Were you a Buffalo Bills fan?

JU: Unfortunately.

FNL: Were you athletic in junior high and high school? Were sports important to you?

JU: When I was in high school, I played football and, yes, there was an emphasis on it, but also I went to a Jesuit prep school, so the academics were far from trivial.

FNL: And when did you first become interested in mathematics?

JU: I didn’t become interested in mathematics until I hit college.

FNL: Penn State.

JU: Correct. I was always good at math, but I wasn’t necessarily interested in it.

FNL: Did you go to Penn State primarily for football?

JU: Yes, I was on a football scholarship.

FNL: So briefly, what was the evolution from football to math?

JU: I would say football came first. I was always strong at math, but just because you’re the strongest math student at your high school doesn’t mean you’re extremely good at it. I didn’t think much of it. Football was what I cared about most. My father played in college, and when I was young I wanted to be just like my father. In high school I watched tons of college football. Jake Long, the left tackle for the Michigan Wolverines, was my hero. I wanted to go to Michigan and I wanted to play left tackle. My dream was to play football in the Big Ten.

FNL: So did you apply to Michigan?

JU: College football works differently. You don’t simply apply to the school you want to go to, the way you would as a normal high school senior. You get recruited. If they want you, they offer you an athletic scholarship. I wanted to go to Michigan more than anything, but they didn’t offer me a scholarship. I was a decent player coming out of high school, but I don’t think I was particularly good. I got an offer from Penn State very late in the process, and I took it.

FNL: But Penn State wasn’t really interested in you for academic reasons.

JU: They cared, but only so that I would be able to play football.

FNL: You mean remain academically eligible?

JU: Exactly. There’s something called the NCAA clearinghouse. They have this so-called sliding scale, dictating the minimum requirements for SAT scores and GPA. The higher your SAT score is, the lower your GPA can be. The lower your SAT score is the higher your GPA has to be. I think my SAT was something like a 1530.

FNL: So your GPA could have been virtually non-existent.

JU: Correct.

FNL: So you get to Penn State and how did the football go?

JU: Each college football team is allotted 85 scholarships. Every year a team can only bring in at most 25 new scholarship players. My first year, Penn State signed 27 people, but they’re only allowed 25, so two people would have to be greyshirted. That means they sit the fall semester out, and then they enroll in the spring. I was concerned that I was going to be one of those two people because I was the 26th person signed.

FNL: So now you’re approaching the beginning of the semester and . . . ?

JU: One person didn’t get in because of grades, and another person had an underage drinking citation, and so . . . .

FNL: So 27 got down to 25 and you get the scholarship.

JU: Right. I’m on scholarship and working very hard at football, but at the same time I’m taking classes toward an engineering degree. Because I was strong in math and physics in high school, my mother told me to major in engineering, but I found that my favorite classes were my math classes. My engineering classes were more focused on the “how,” whereas my math classes were more concerned with the “why.” I liked the structure and rigor of mathematics more than the practical focus of my engineering courses. So during the summer of my freshman year, I took a senior level math course in probability, just to get a feel for the major. I loved it and immediately became a math major.

FNL: How did you find the academics in general at Penn State?

JU: I took very little English or history – the bare minimum. I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but I only took six non-mathematical classes my whole time at Penn State.

FNL: Really? Not even non-engineering, just non-mathematical?

JU: Yep, six. You had to take an intro to English, you had to take public speaking, you had to take technical writing, and then you had electives. For the arts electives, I took theory of music. I took the most mathematical courses I could find. I didn’t know what I was going to do with my math major, I just knew that I loved it.

FNL: How much time would you say football took up?

JU: In season, it certainly takes up well more than half your waking hours. There are rules in the NCAA about hour limits, but these rules are broken just about everywhere. It’s well known that big-time college football is more or less a full-time job.

FNL: The idea that you’re really into math and that you’re on the football team is kind of a cognitive dissonance. Did that affect you? Were you a different person when you were with your teammates?

JU: I was, to some extent, because football culture and the culture of a math department are completely different.

FNL: And for you especially coming from a Jesuit school, the idea of that kind of moral or social upbringing, it’s going to be a little different than Penn State or Big Ten football culture.

JU: It’s true, but I didn’t feel particularly out of place. I got a tiny bit of pushback early on from the football team with respect to my coursework, but once they saw that I could play, everything was going to be fine.

FNL: OK. So, freshman year, how did that go football wise? Did you start?

JU: No, I was redshirted. It means you’re on scholarship, but you don’t play for a year and you save your eligibility. I was an offensive lineman, and offensive linemen are usually redshirted the first year. More than any other position, it’s the one where high school kids need to develop in order to compete at higher levels.

FNL: So, you have to go to school that fifth year and take classes as well, but you can play football into that fifth year.

FNL: And in your sophomore year?

JU: I was a reserve during sophomore year. At that time, I decided I was a math major. I took this course called real analysis, taught by this math professor, Vadim Kaloshin, who got his PhD from Princeton. He’s now the Brin Chair of Dynamical Systems at the University of Maryland. He recognized some potential and really took an interest in me. He was the person who really introduced me to the idea of what a mathematician does and what mathematical research is. I did my first project with him, which led to my first paper, a research paper on the three-body problem.

FNL: Well, even though some of our readers may want to know what the three-body problem is, it might be a little too complicated for our interview.

JU: It would be. I found that I really enjoyed it. He would send me problems and things to read, and the stuff I did with him took up 90% of my academic time. The other 10% was for all my classes.

FNL: Then it’s your junior year.

JU: Correct, my junior year. I wasn’t starting on the football team yet, but I was a split starter. I split every game with this other player who was a fourth-year senior. He played the first and third quarters at right guard and I played the second and fourth. That’s how it went for my entire junior year. It was the same year that all this Paterno/Sandusky stuff came out.

FNL: That was the child sex abuse scandal concerning assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, resulting in his conviction and the firing of long-time head football coach Joe Paterno.

FNL: Was it more difficult playing football because of the scandal and the firing of Paterno?

JU: Not really. I loved our new coach, Bill O’Brien. And what can you say about it? It was just this awful tragedy, an awful, awful tragedy, and I’m not sure there’s much for me to say to do it justice.

FNL: And the academic side?

JU: That year, my junior year, I started taking my first graduate courses in mathematics. Vadim left, going back to the University of Maryland. I was uncertain about what I should study. I started doing some graduate course work in numerical analysis, and getting into this and that. I finished my undergraduate degree in my third year, and so in my fourth year I started my Masters in math. I thought about starting my PhD, but I wanted to have time to focus on football, and I thought I wanted to do my PhD somewhere other than Penn State. Penn State is a great institution, but I felt that I was a very strong math candidate, and I wanted to go to a top math PhD program – not for the name, but to be around brilliant people. It’s not always fair, but where you do your PhD matters.

FNL: So, that’s your fourth year, but it’s your third year of football.

JU: Right. I was taking PhD-level coursework. Penn State doesn’t really have a Masters program; it consists of taking PhD coursework, a little bit of undergrad coursework, and doing a thesis. I was also a starter on the football team. I ended up earning First Team Big 10 honors, which was a huge thing for me. That spring, I wrote my thesis and taught a course in trigonometry and analytic geometry, not as a TA. I loved teaching, which I took as another a sign that I wanted to be a professor.

FNL: Then it’s your fifth year.

JU: During my fifth year, I taught another course, vector calculus. Since I had graduated that previous spring with my Masters, I needed to enroll in something, so I enrolled in a math education Masters. It’s a great field, but not really for me. I signed up for it just to be eligible to play football. I didn’t take any math education classes. I signed up for reading courses with some professors that I was already doing research with, so it was like I wasn’t taking any classes at all, which is just what I wanted. I wanted to focus on football my last semester, because ideally I was going to the NFL.

FNL: So now it seems the dichotomy between football and academia is getting stronger and stronger.

JU: It is. It started out very mild. I do a little bit of math, I do a little bit of football, but how good am I at either? I don’t know. It turns out I’m very good at both, but it all kind of feels the same to me. I was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the fifth round.

FNL: That’s pretty high, fifth round.

JU: It’s not bad. I was drafted as a center. Centers usually aren’t drafted very high.

FNL: And what about academia?

JU: Well, I was not in any math programs during my first year in the NFL. I was focusing on football. I was still doing some research with professors I know and doing some reading and things on my own. But after my first year, I very much missed the academic culture. So I applied to MIT.

FNL: Did you apply just to MIT?

JU: Just to MIT.

FNL: Did you have any connections or know people who were connected to MIT?

JU: I didn’t really. I looked at different math programs and I thought MIT was the best one for me. I was accepted, and I started going to school here while playing in the NFL. Because I was playing pro football, the MIT Math Department was very understanding. They let me start that spring semester, 2016, instead of the following fall semester.

FNL: So now you’re playing in the NFL and attending MIT. And that football/academia dichotomy – how do you think it affected you?

JU: Truthfully, I was never concerned about it. I never really experienced any problems from either side. I think this is either one of my good qualities or one of my very bad qualities. I don’t really care what people say. I say: This is what I’m going to do and you can say what you want about it.

I love MIT. I took four classes my first semester just because I saw all these amazing PhD courses and I couldn’t choose among them. I ended up being advised by Michel Goemans, who’s now the Department Head. He wrote one of the most beautiful papers I’d ever seen, on the max cut. He always has time for me, and he really emphasizes learning. I am very thankful to have him as my advisor.

FNL: So the spring semester ends and it’s back to football.

JU: Yeah. Leaving MIT was hard because I loved it here so much, and frankly I’ve never been happier anywhere else.

FNL: Right. So, you’re here for spring and summer and . . .

JU: No, just spring. During summer I’ve got football training.

FNL: Right. And when you leave here there are no side courses when you’re playing football the way it was at Penn State.

JU: No, that fall I took a course in probability theory and a reading course too.

FNL: But you’re not here.

JU: I’m not here, but I send in my assignments via correspondence while playing my third year. Then the season ends in January and I come back to MIT. I’ve got my qualifying exams as soon as I get back at the beginning of February. So I’m studying like crazy as soon as the season ends. I pass my quals, am working with Michel, and am still training for football. Meanwhile, I’m thinking, do I want to go back to Baltimore? I’m really loving things at MIT.

FNL: Have you ever had any injuries?

JU: I was lucky. I’ve had some hip injuries. I’ve broken some fingers. My fingers don’t look the best. I had a concussion one year. I did something to my MCL, no, PCL -- I don’t remember. One of the CLs. I separated my AC joint one year. These are small.

FNL: What about money? Were you financially secure from your NFL salary?

JU: Let me see. I made about two million from the NFL, but I also had income from endorsements, speaking engagements, things of that sort.

FNL: Just from being an NFL player?

JU: The endorsements and appearances had to do a lot with the fact that I was so unique. Offensive linemen don’t usually get those endorsements.

FNL: So the NFL money frees you from having to worry about getting money from MIT.

JU: And I’m so thankful. I loved my time in the NFL. It’s an amazing thing to be able to play at the elite level, and I’m thankful for the money I was able to make. I’m not a billionaire, but I’m at a point where I’m financially stable. I don’t ever need to worry about money. I buy things like math books and coffee. I don’t own a car. I live in Cambridge and I walk to work.

FNL: So it’s the end of the spring semester of your second year at MIT and it’s time to go back and play football.

JU: And I have a child on the way, too. I am very happy at MIT. So I decide to retire from pro football.

FNL: Well let’s back up a little. I read that when you had the concussion you found you couldn’t do the math for a while.

JU: It’s natural when you get a concussion. I mean it was a little frustrating – more than a little. It was frustrating.

FNL: Did it scare you? Did you think about the findings on CTE?

JU: No, it didn’t really scare me. I knew that my brain was going to recover. The CTE stuff, it’s one of those things where the rate of CTE in the NFL is not zero percent, and it’s not 99%. It’s somewhere in between. It’s not surprising. I didn’t spend a lot of time wondering about it. I just said to myself, it is what it is.

FNL: So you’d say that your decision to quit football had to do with MIT and your family, not any kind of concern about your physical health?

JU: Well, I wouldn’t say zero concern. I began to care a lot more about my longevity. I’d say it was really two things. One, I loved MIT and I just didn’t want to spend time away from it anymore. I wanted to focus on becoming a very good mathematician. And two, I started caring about longevity. I wanted to be able to walk my daughter down the aisle and things like that.

FNL: Do you have any regrets about playing professional football and possibly risking your future?

JU: In hindsight, would I have done anything different? No. I loved my time in the NFL. I’m proud of being able to play the sport at the elite level. I started playoff games and played against the world’s best. I’ll have those experiences for the rest of my life, and I don’t regret them. Now, though, I’m ready to move on and focus on math. I have math goals. I love being here. If I had it my way, I’d love to be a professor here.

FNL: What are your math goals?

JU: One, I’d like to do good research. I’m drawn both to problems that have importance in our world, and problems that are interesting for their elegance. I want people to look back and say, “John Urschel, he did some things.”

FNL: Would teaching and research be the way to do that?

JU: Right now I’m doing some research. I also want to inspire young people in mathematics. And there is something that I don’t ever talk about – but maybe I should. I’m Black. I like the fact being Black has nothing to do with how good of a mathematician I am or how people perceive me as a mathematician. I fully believe that, and it’s a beautiful thing about math: it’s very merit-based. I believe that’s true in the majority of sciences. But one of the realities is that the percentage of African Americans in fields like mathematics is pretty low. And if you look up famous African American mathematicians, the majority of them are famous for being the first African American to do something, instead of for the work they did. The first African American to get a PhD; the first African American to get a PhD from Yale; the first African American woman to do this or that. And you know what? I’m thankful for those pioneering people. But what I’m really looking forward to is the day when being an African American mathematician doesn’t really mean much. I want to be a person who does something and who just happens to be African American. I am aware that I have some responsibility there. I don’t take it lightly.

FNL: Thank you so much for sharing that.

JU: Of course. I don’t like talking about it much, because I don’t like bringing attention to differences. I can’t wait for the day when it’s just not a thing. I can’t wait for the day when the idea of having a conference and awards for African American mathematicians sounds absolutely ridiculous, almost as ridiculous as having a conference and awards for Caucasian-American mathematicians.

FNL: For years MIT has been concerned about increasing the number of underrepresented minorities at the Institute – both students and faculty. Have you explored participating in that type of activity?

JU: I’m aware of the problem, but I don’t know how to fix it. I do a decent amount of outreach, visiting schools, trying to do things, but I actually try to do these things irrespective of race, color, or background. I try to inspire all young people in mathematics, including African Americans. It’s a tough subject, and I might not be the right person to talk to about it. I haven’t studied racial inequality or diversity initiatives. But here I am. I’m a mathematician, and I’m African American. I’ve been in the national spotlight, and there aren’t many like me.

FNL: And you’re a role model. You can’t help but be one.

JU: Yes. I want to do good things not only for my own sake. I’d like to be a mathematician who is remembered for his work, adding to the list of Black mathematicians who are known for good results.

FNL: So what are your goals for the future now that you’ve retired from professional football and are a full-time PhD candidate?

JU: My goal is to prepare to be a good mathematician. I will probably do a post-doc somewhere, and then see what places will have me.

FNL: After that what kind of work? What are the job opportunities for mathematicians?

JU: I want to stay in academia, so I’m only looking for academic positions. I love it here at MIT, so when I’m done with my post-doc and I’m applying to places, if MIT would have me, I’d come back in a heartbeat.

FNL: And what are the job opportunities for mathematicians outside of academia?

JU: Mathematicians often get hired on Wall Street and by tech companies: your Amazons, your Googles, your Yahoos. I believe the NSA claims that they’re the single biggest employer of mathematicians in the country. But did I mention I really love MIT? [LAUGHTER] FNL: Anything else you’d like to say?

JU: Just that I wake up in the morning and I say to myself: Where else would I rather be? What else would I rather be doing? And there’s nowhere else in the world I’d rather be. There’s nothing else I’d rather be doing. That’s just a beautiful thing.

FNL: Well thank you, John, for your time.

JU: Thank you, it’s been fun.

An NFL player just aced his first semester of a PhD program at MIT

Continuing to show he is one of the more unusual — and impressive — players in the NFL, Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman John Urschel announced via Twitter that he received a 4.0 GPA in his first semester of a Ph.D. in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"My first semester in school in nearly three years. Four PhD classes at MIT. Four A's. The streak continues!!!" Urschel tweeted.

—John Urschel (@JohnCUrschel) May 24, 2016

Urschel is used to succeeding academically.

He earned his bachelor's degree in three years at Penn State and spent his senior year working on a master's degree in mathematics, while being paid by Penn State to teach Integral Vector Calculus Trigonometry.

Watch: MIT researchers made a squishy robot fish that could revolutionise how we study the ocean

Main content

In a recent interview with the American Mathematical Society , he said he read mathematics during his free time traveling for NFL road games.

He noted, however, that his ability to separate football from math was one of self-preservation.

"If I'm thinking about math on the football field, this is going to get me killed," he told AMS.

NOW WATCH: Teachers are calling in sick to protest the deplorable condition of Detroit public schools

Entertainment

How to Watch
My watchlist
Stock market
Biden economy
Personal finance
Stocks: most active
Stocks: gainers
Stocks: losers
Trending tickers
World indices
US Treasury bonds
Top mutual funds
Highest open interest
Highest implied volatility
Currency converter
Basic materials
Communication services
Consumer cyclical
Consumer defensive
Financial services
Industrials
Real estate
Mutual funds
Credit cards
Credit card rates
Balance transfer credit cards
Business credit cards
Cash back credit cards
Rewards credit cards
Travel credit cards
Checking accounts
Online checking accounts
High-yield savings accounts
Money market accounts
Personal loans
Student loans
Car insurance
Home buying
Options pit
Investment ideas
Research reports
Fantasy football
Pro Pick 'Em
College Pick 'Em
Fantasy baseball
Fantasy hockey
Fantasy basketball
Download the app
Daily fantasy
Scores and schedules
GameChannel
World Baseball Classic
Premier League
CONCACAF League
Champions League
Motorsports
Horse racing
Newsletters

New on Yahoo

Privacy Dashboard

March Madness
Yahoo Sports AM
College Sports
Fantasy Sports
Horse Racing
Free Agency
Scores/Schedule
Fantasy Football
Clark vs. Bueckers: Final Four clash
Ohtani HR ball drama
Latest NFL mock draft
Mets finally win, Miami still winless
Rice was driver in crash

NFL player Urschel, seeking Ph.D. in math, retires from football at 26

By Jon Herskovitz (Reuters) - A Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman pursuing a doctorate in mathematics announced his retirement from professional football on Thursday, and team officials said a study linking NFL players to brain disease was a factor in his decision. John Urschel , 26, a Ph.D. candidate at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has been dubbed the "smartest player in the National Football League," called Ravens Coach John Harbaugh and said he was retiring, Harbaugh told a news conference. "That was something that’s been on his mind for quite a while, throughout the off season," Harbaugh said. Urschel has not spoken to the media about his reasons for retiring after just three seasons in the NFL, all with the Ravens. The Baltimore Sun cited team sources indicating his decision was related to a study released this week on chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a debilitating brain disease. According to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the brains of 99 percent of former NFL players studied showed signs of the disease, linked to repeated hits to the head that can lead to aggression and dementia. CTE is linked to the head-to-head hits that have long been a part of the sport, although the NFL and school leagues have been tweaking the game in recent years to limit blows to the head. Urschel, a 6-foot, 3-inch (1.9 m), 300-pound (136 kg) player who joined the Ravens from Penn State University, is studying applied mathematics at MIT and was the co-author of a research paper titled "Spectral Bisection of Graphs and Connectedness," that was published in 2014, the same year he began his pro career. An avid chess player who reads math books to relax, Urschel was featured in a television commercial in which he explains the technology behind noise-cancelling headphones to NFL star J.J. Watt , who uses the technology to tune out the lecture. In a 2015 article he wrote in The Players Tribune, Urschel said he loved playing football and accepted the risk of brain injury. "Objectively, I shouldn’t. I have a bright career ahead of me in mathematics," he wrote, adding that he was not seeking to get rich playing football. "The things I love the most in this world (reading math, doing research, playing chess) are very, very inexpensive," he wrote. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas; Editing by Dan Grebler)

clock This article was published more than 6 years ago

At age 26, Ravens’ John Urschel retires from NFL to pursue PhD in math at MIT

Something about playing professional football does not add up anymore for Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman John Urschel.

On Thursday, just two days after a new study revealed increasing evidence connecting the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy to the highest levels of the game, the 26-year-old retired.

Baltimore, where Urschel played for three seasons, made the announcement online .

With three years under his belt, Urschel also vested in the pension plan. Noteworthy. — Battle Tested (@clearvision26) July 27, 2017

“This morning John Urschel informed me of this decision to retire from football,” Coach John Harbaugh said in a statement. “We respect John and respect his decision. We appreciate his efforts over the past three years and wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”

The latest brain study examined 111 former NFL players. Only one didn’t have CTE.

Urschel did not immediately comment on the news, but later posted a short statement on Twitter thanking everyone for the kind words.

“It wasn’t an easy decision, but I believe it was the right one for me,” he said, announcing he and his fiancee were expected their first child in December. “There’s not big story here, and I’d appreciate the right to privacy.”

pic.twitter.com/UmIQa2kn5e — John Urschel (@JohnCUrschel) July 27, 2017

Urshel, of course, already has a second career lined up, which he pointed to on Thursday. A doctoral candidate in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Urschel has nine published or accepted research papers to his name, according to the school’s magazine MIT Technology Review . His specialties include discrete Schrödinger operators, high dimensional data compression, algebraic multigrid and Voronoi diagrams.

“I have never had a student like him,” Ludmil Zikatanov, who taught Urschel as an undergrad and master’s student at Penn State, told The Post’s Michael S. Rosenwald last year .

Urschel’s said in the past that he envisions a “bright career” for himself in mathematics. He’s also said , however, “I love hitting people.”

And although he did not mention it in his statement on Thursday, Urschel’s never been shy about talking about the possible risks to his brain from playing football. In fact, in a 2015 essay for the Players’ Tribune , he said he “envied” Chris Borland, who retired from the NFL at age 24 over concerns about CTE.

“Objectively, I shouldn’t [play football],” Urschel admitted in his essay. He added, though, that his passion for the game overrode the possible risks.

“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,” he wrote. “This is a feeling I’m (for lack of a better word) addicted to, and I’m hard-pressed to find anywhere else.”

NFL’s John Urschel has a brain made for math.

It’s unclear whether Urschel, who participated in all the team’s training sessions during the offseason, simply no longer feels that same passion, or if he now determined the risk to outweigh his love of the sport. (Or it could be something else entirely.)

If it’s the latter, however, it would hardly be a surprise following the release of a study this week conducted by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine and the VA Boston Healthcare System. Researchers studied the brains of 111 former NFL players who died in recent years and diagnosed 110 with CTE.

“Obviously, this doesn’t represent the prevalence in the general population, but the fact that we’ve been able to gather this high a number of cases in such a short period of time says that this disease is not uncommon,” neuropathologist Ann McKee told The Post’s Rick Maese this week . “In fact, I think it’s much more common than we currently realize. And more importantly, this is a problem in football that we need to address and we need to address now in order to bring some hope and optimism to football players.”

Best of luck to @JohnCUrschel in the future. Guy is a genius and even a better person! — Kapron Lewis-Moore (@KLM_89) July 27, 2017

While Urschel is the youngest player to retire this week to continue to pursue his PhD, he’s not the only one. On Tuesday, 31-year-old wide receiver Andrew Hawkins, who had signed a one-year deal with the New England Patriots, ended his career, as well . He also pledged to donate his brain to CTE research in the future. In the meantime, Hawkins, who recently earned his masters from Columbia University, said he plans to pursue his doctorate in business and economics.

From NFL to MIT: John Urschel looking to increase diversity in mathematics

Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, former NFL offensive lineman John Urschel stood among students from all backgrounds and colors at the National Museum of Mathematics in Manhattan and asked a couple of questions.

How many want to be a football player? Nearly every hand shot up.

How many want to be a doctor? Hardly anyone lifted their arm.

Urschel didn't have to be an MIT math whiz -- which, for a fact, he is -- to figure out how this all adds up.

“It’s very hard to dream of being in a career if you can’t relate to anyone who’s actually in that field,” Urschel said.

He retired in 2017 after three seasons with the Baltimore Ravens so he could fully commit to his dream of earning a doctorate in applied mathematics. Urschel, who is Black, wants to empower Black children to follow similar paths in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

In coordination with the museum, Urschel is hosting an online panel discussion , “Bending the Arc,” on Wednesday. This brings together a group of five distinguished African American mathematicians to talk about their experiences and love of math while serving as inspiration to a younger generation.

“Now more than ever, it’s really important that we highlight some of the diverse areas of mathematics that don’t typically get seen every day,” Urschel said.

As an undergraduate student at Penn State, Urschel redefined the term "mathlete." He posted a 4.0 GPA in getting his master’s while being named first-team All-Big 10 in football. Urschel acknowledges he didn’t experience as many obstacles as other African American mathematicians because he received support from his teammates.

But Urschel has heard numerous stories about how minority students have had a harder time finding groups to do problem sets and have a difficult time identifying with graduate students or faculty members.

It's been estimated there are perhaps only a dozen Black mathematicians among nearly 2,000 tenured faculty members in the nation's top 50 math departments, according to a New York Times article published in 2019. Fewer than 1% of the doctorates in math are awarded to African Americans.

"I feel like [Urschel] is in a position to really move the needle with kids,” said Cindy Lawrence, CEO and executive director of the National Museum of Math.

Urschel has been a popular ambassador for math. Even after being selected in the fifth round by the Ravens in 2014, he made the time to talk to high school math classes in Baltimore on his one day off.

Recently, Urschel received an email from a student who listened to one of his talks about four years ago. The student wanted to let Urschel know that he's at Penn State and majoring in engineering.

"Those are the things you hope for, and I think these things do make a difference,” Urschel said. "I know I wouldn’t be where I am today as a mathematician if it wasn’t for a lot of specific people, a lot of different mathematicians deciding that I was worth their time.”

Urschel, 29, is a fifth-year doctorate student at MIT, and he expects to graduate in the spring. His research focus has been on numerical linear algebra, graph theory and data science learning.

He joined the board of trustees at the National Museum of Mathematics and was approached about this online forum to promote diversity over the past couple of months.

"We felt it was important, especially given what was going on in the country at the time,” Lawrence said. "This is making sure Black children who like math see math as a welcoming place for them and as a place where they can succeed -- and where others have succeeded.”

In his talks with students, Urschel often uses his stories about football to gain their attention. He’ll then admit that the talk isn’t about sports but math.

While his lifelong passions have been football and math, he has usually kept them separate. Urschel has tried to stay away from sports analytics for now because he doesn’t want to pigeonhole himself in the field. He continues to watch football, and it’s for more than just entertainment purposes.

In January, Urschel became one of three new members on the College Football Playoff selection committee.

Asked if he could bring a new formula to the process, Urschel said, “These are things I’m not supposed to talk about.”

What Urschel loves talking about is math. He wants to convey his excitement about his field to today’s youth. It’s why he mentors undergraduates and tries to provide a good example to high school students. His hope is Wednesday’s event will be the first of many.

"When I look back at my career and look back at certain role models and certain professors who had an impact on me because they took the time that they didn’t have to,” Urschel said. “This is something I have a responsibility for."

Side Hustles
Power Players
Young Success
Save and Invest
Become Debt-Free
Land the Job
Closing the Gap
Science of Success
Pop Culture and Media
Psychology and Relationships
Health and Wellness
Real Estate
Most Popular

Why an NFL player who retired to pursue a PhD at MIT chose to live on $25,000 a year

John Urschel had a short but lucrative, NFL career. The offensive lineman, who retired at age 26 in 2017 to pursue his PhD at MIT, earned $1.8 million over his three seasons with the Baltimore Ravens.

His salary was as high as $600,000 in 2016, but Urschel never lived like he was making six figures. In fact, he did the opposite.

"I drive a used hatchback Nissan Versa and live on less than $25,000 a year," the athlete wrote on The Players' Tribune in 2015 .

Urschel bought the Nissan after he was drafted by the Ravens in 2014. It cost him $9,000, just a fraction of his $144,560 signing bonus.

Even his mom has joked about the Versa, which had 30,000 miles on it when Urschel bought it:

It's his "dream car," he told ESPN in 2015 . "It's great on gas. It's surprisingly spacious. And you know what the best feeling is? You're driving into a parking deck, it's near full and you're on the first level and there is that space that everyone has passed because they said, 'No, we can't park in there.' And I take my Versa and I just go right in there."

He didn't live on a modest $25,000 a year and drive a used car "because I'm frugal or trying to save for some big purchase," Urschel noted. "It's because the things I love the most in this world (reading math, doing research, playing chess) are very, very inexpensive."

Urschel not only loves math, he's quite good at it. He earned a bachelor's and master's in mathematics while maintaining a 4.0 GPA and his work has been published in numerous journals, including the Journal of Computation Mathematics and the SIAM Journal of Numerical Analysis .

The things I love the most in this world (reading math, doing research, playing chess) are very, very inexpensive. John Urschel former NFL player and current PhD student

Currently, he's pursuing his doctorate at MIT .

Urschel's new salary might look different than his NFL salary, but "I have the means to make a good living and provide for my family, without playing football," he wrote on The Players' Tribune. "I have no desire to try to accumulate $10 million in the bank; I already have more money in my bank account than I know what to do with."

Like this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook !

Don't miss: NFL player who lives on $60,000 a year says this book changed his mindset about money

This NFL starting quarterback drives a dented van he bought from his grandma for $5,000

NFL Player to Begin Work on Math PhD

Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman John Urschel is 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 305 pounds—but his brain may be more intimidating than his bulk. The 24-year-old, who already holds two math degrees, will begin his math PhD at MIT this offseason, specializing in spectral graph theory, numerical linear algebra, and machine learning, the Baltimore Sun reports. Urschel was already well-known for his academic achievements, having taught trigonometry and analytic geometry as part of his master's degree while playing at Penn State, reports Onward State . His published research includes "A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fiedler Vector of Graph Laplacians."

"There's nothing I love more than crunching numbers, except maybe crunching defensive linemen on the football field," Urschel, who did advanced math problems to test how well he was recovering from a concussion last year, writes in his math-meets-football column at the Players' Tribune . Urschel's playing career is progressing as well as his academic one and he could become a full-time starter for the Ravens in 2016, notes Jamison Hensley at ESPN , predicting that the day will come when NFL announcers introduce him as "Dr. John Urschel." (Last year, Urschel said he was in football for the love of the game , not the money.)

A DuckDuckGo extension in your browser, please access Newser without it: Either by removing it, whitelisting us, or using another browser.

$Graduate Students 2018-2019$

The department offers programs covering a broad range of topics leading to the Doctor of Philosophy and the Doctor of Science degrees (the student chooses which to receive; they are functionally equivalent). Candidates are admitted to either the Pure or Applied Mathematics programs but are free to pursue interests in both groups. Of the roughly 120 Ph.D. students, about 2/3 are in Pure Mathematics, 1/3 in Applied Mathematics.

The two programs in Pure and Applied Mathematics offer basic and advanced classes in analysis, algebra, geometry, Lie theory, logic, number theory, probability, statistics, topology, astrophysics, combinatorics, fluid dynamics, numerical analysis, mathematics of data, and the theory of computation. In addition, many mathematically-oriented courses are offered by other departments. Students in Applied Mathematics are especially encouraged to take courses in engineering and scientific subjects related to their research.

All students pursue research under the supervision of the faculty , and are encouraged to take advantage of the many seminars and colloquia at MIT and in the Boston area.

Degree Requirements

Degree requirements consist of:

Oral qualifying exam
Classroom teaching
Original thesis and defense

Prospective students are invited to consult the graduate career timeline for more information, and to read about the application procedure .

Graduate Co-Chairs

Graduate Student Issues, math graduate admissions

Jonathan Kelner , Davesh Maulik , and Zhiwei Yun

IMAGES

NFL player just got four As in his first semester of an MIT math PhD program
$nfl mit math phd$
John Urschel on Giving Up Football for a Ph.D. in Math
NFL Player and Applied Mathematics PhD Student at MIT : math
Math In The Nfl by thomas.pudil
Download NFL Math (Windows)
$nfl mit math phd$
An NFL player was just accepted to the math PhD program at MIT

VIDEO

Pre-Algebra Unit 5 Lesson 4 Video

COMMENTS

John Urschel
John Cameron Urschel (born June 24, 1991) is a Canadian-American mathematician and former professional American football guard He played college football at Penn State and was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the fifth round of the 2014 NFL Draft.Urschel played his entire NFL career with Baltimore before announcing his retirement on July 27, 2017, at 26 years old.
Grad student John Urschel tackles his lifelong balance of math and
A new book by graduate student John Urschel chronicles his decision to retire from the NFL and pursue his passion for mathematics at MIT, reports the Associated Press. Urschel explains that through his book, he "wanted to share my love of math and also perhaps train certain peoples' thinking about math and show them some of the beauty ...
John Urschel on Giving Up Football for a Ph.D. in Math
Tony Luong for TIME. By Sean Gregory. May 16, 2019 8:37 AM EDT. O ne recent afternoon in Cambridge, Mass., John Urschel and I strolled along the Charles River on the way to his office at MIT ...
John Urschel: Pro football player-turned mathematician : Short Wave : NPR
After all, John Urschel didn't. These days, he's a mathematician and professor at MIT, where he researches linear algebra. But before that career took off, he played football. First, as student at ...
John Urschel recounts his journey from the NFL to MIT
His big expenses were math books and coffee. He estimates that he lived on less than $25,000 a year. In the end, he retired from the NFL at age 26 to pursue becoming a mathematician. Urschel, now 27, has about one year left before he earns his doctorate at MIT. After that, he has his sights set on a career in academia.
Former NFL Player John Urschel Joins MIT Faculty As A Math ...
Urschel was recently hired as a professor of mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), according to a press release by the university. The former NFL player is one of 16 new ...
John Urschel Studied At MIT As A Ph.D. Student During His NFL Career
Per ESPN, t he now 32-year-old decided on early retirement in 2017 to take his interest in advanced theoretical mathematics head-on, completing his Ph.D. at MIT in 2021.
Grad student John Urschel tackles his lifelong balance of math and
It's been nearly two years since John Urschel retired from the NFL at the age of 26, trading a career as a professional football player at the height of his game for a chance at a PhD in mathematics at MIT. From the looks of it, he couldn't be happier. The former offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens is now a full-time graduate student who spends his days in Building 2, poring over ...
Former NFL Player Is Now A Math Professor At MIT
Urschel is now a math professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). While playing in the NFL, Urschel pursued his Ph.D. in mathematics at MIT. Surprisingly, he managed to publish ...
From the NFL to MIT: The Double Life of John Urschel
From the NFL to MIT: The Double Life of John Urschel. Whether he's blocking a 300-pound defensive lineman or hitting the math books, this doctoral candidate just won't quit. By. Peter Dizikes ...
An NFL player was just accepted to the math PhD program at MIT
The 6'3", 305-pound offensive lineman will begin a PhD in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this year. The Hulk-like math geek, who graduated from Penn State with a 4.0 ...
Interview With Former Pro Football Player and Math PhD Candidate John
I was accepted, and I started going to school here while playing in the NFL. Because I was playing pro football, the MIT Math Department was very understanding. They let me start that spring semester, 2016, instead of the following fall semester. FNL: So now you're playing in the NFL and attending MIT. And that football/academia dichotomy ...
John Urschel's Homepage
I completed my PhD in math at MIT in 2021, and had the pleasure of being advised by Michel Goemans. Here are a few selected publications: ... MathROOTS: MathROOTS is a two-week summer program hosted by MIT Math for high-potential high school students from underrepresented backgrounds or underserved communities. I am in charge of the academic ...
Offensive Lineman John Urschel Starting PhD at MIT
NFL player and math whiz John Urschel is starting his Ph.D. at MIT. A vertical stack of three evenly spaced horizontal lines. ... An NFL player just aced his first semester of a PhD program at MIT ...
An NFL player is starting a math PhD program at MIT in his offseason
Put another way, the 24-year-old, 305-pound lineman got into the No. 1 ranked graduate school for mathematics, all while having a full-time job in a field other than math.. Urschel has a well ...
NFL player Urschel, seeking Ph.D. in math, retires from football at 26
Urschel, a 6-foot, 3-inch (1.9 m), 300-pound (136 kg) player who joined the Ravens from Penn State University, is studying applied mathematics at MIT and was the co-author of a research paper ...
John Urschel didn't tell Ravens he was a full-time Ph.D. student at MIT
I get home around 5:00, perhaps 5:30. From Sunday, 5:30 p.m. until Tuesday, say, 11:00 a.m. — when I have to go into the Ravens — all I am doing is MIT coursework and math. That is all I am doing.
At age 26, Ravens' John Urschel retires from NFL to pursue PhD in math
A doctoral candidate in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Urschel has nine published or accepted research papers to his name, according to the school's magazine MIT ...
From NFL to ambassador: John Urschel looking to increase ...
Urschel, 29, is a fifth-year doctorate student at MIT, and he expects to graduate in the spring. His research focus has been on numerical linear algebra, graph theory and data science learning.
MIT Better World: I'm John Urschel, and I love math
MIT Mathematics PhD candidate and NFL offensive lineman John Urschel speaks at celebration of MIT in Washington, DC, on April 13, 2017. After discovering a l...
NFL player who retired to pursue a PhD at MIT lived on $25,000 a year
John Urschel had a short but lucrative, NFL career. The offensive lineman, who retired at age 26 in 2017 to pursue his PhD at MIT, earned $1.8 million over his three seasons with the Baltimore Ravens.
NFL Player to Begin Work on Math PhD
The 24-year-old, who already holds two math degrees, will begin his math PhD at MIT this offseason, specializing in spectral graph theory, numerical linear algebra, and machine learning, the ...
Graduate
Graduate Students 2018-2019. The department offers programs covering a broad range of topics leading to the Doctor of Philosophy and the Doctor of Science degrees (the student chooses which to receive; they are functionally equivalent). Candidates are admitted to either the Pure or Applied Mathematics programs but are free to pursue interests ...

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Departments

Centers, Labs, & Programs

Grad student John Urschel tackles his lifelong balance of math and football in new memoir

Share this news article on:

Education Week

Associated Press

Good Morning America

New York Times

Boston Globe

Related Links

Related Topics

Related Articles

Big issues on the table at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference

From football to physics

MIT Football tackles diversity and inclusion conversations

A record crowd in Washington celebrates MIT’s culture of innovation and discovery

Reevaluating an approach to functional brain imaging

Propelling atomically layered magnets toward green computers

MIT Haystack scientists prepare a constellation of instruments to observe the solar eclipse’s effects

Q&A: Tips for viewing the 2024 solar eclipse

Unlocking new science with devices that control electric power

Drinking from a firehose — on stage

Ex–NFL Player John Urschel Gave up the Game for a Ph.D.—and a Life—in Math

More Must-Reads From TIME

You May Also Like

This mathematician had another career: professional football player

John Urschel recounts his journey from the NFL to MIT

Up Next From Sports

WHERE BLACK CULTURE, COMMUNITY AND CONSCIOUSNESS MEET

John Urschel Studied At MIT As A Ph.D. Student During His NFL Career, Now He’s A Math Professor At The School

The Best Of Both Worlds

Furthering His Love For Mathematics

Grad student John Urschel tackles his lifelong balance of math and football in new memoir

Open Learning newsletter

Former NFL Player Is Now A Math Professor At MIT

MIT Technology Review

From the NFL to MIT: The Double Life of John Urschel

Keep Reading

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

The problem with plug-in hybrids? Their drivers.

Stay connected

Support Quartz

An NFL player was just accepted to the math PhD program at MIT

📬 Sign up for the Daily Brief

Interview With Former Pro Football Player and Math PhD Candidate John Urschel

An NFL player just aced his first semester of a PhD program at MIT

Watch: MIT researchers made a squishy robot fish that could revolutionise how we study the ocean

Entertainment

New on Yahoo

NFL player Urschel, seeking Ph.D. in math, retires from football at 26

At age 26, Ravens’ John Urschel retires from NFL to pursue PhD in math at MIT

From NFL to MIT: John Urschel looking to increase diversity in mathematics

Why an NFL player who retired to pursue a PhD at MIT chose to live on $25,000 a year

NFL Player to Begin Work on Math PhD

Degree Requirements

Graduate Co-Chairs

IMAGES

VIDEO

COMMENTS