Do they really believe they're that good?

Maybe this topic has been discussed before, but I never cease to be amazed at the number of athletes who did well to even make a college football roster, wind up getting an agent, going through these "Pro Day" rituals or setting up a private workout with an NFL scout.
All with the belief that they can go move on to the NFL.
I offer this after learning of a quarterback who was a backup last year at the D-I school we cover hire an agent and set up various private workouts with NFL scouts in hopes of getting a shot at the next level.
He started for seven games last year, then was benched. He was a decent player at the very best and that's stretching the analysis.
Hey, I have no problem with anyone dreaming big, regardless of what profession or area of life that he or she is in. All the more power to them.
But it just seems that so many of these players who reach the final years of their careers and might have gotten precious little playing time in college immediately seem to think they've got the "right stuff" to take it to the NFL.
And they get an agent before they get their degree or they have somebody telling 'em they are just as good as Stud Teammate who is due to be drafted high.
Our D-I school held a recent "Pro Day". Of the 21 seniors on the team, 19 showed up to try and catch the scouts' attention.
Does anyone ever pull them outside and give them a reality check talk about, "son, I know you'd love to be playing in the NFL, but your 8.6 time in the 40 and five reps on the bench press probably won't cut it."

 

What's wrong with chasing a dream?

 

Of course, if the NCAA simply changed the rules to allow players to enter the draft, and then if they don't make the team (NFL or NBA, although I suppose MLB and NHL could be included too), come back to school.

 

Makes to much sense.

In hockey kids are drafted in their freshman year and can finish their schooling, continue playing, then turn pro.

The basketball and football systems are fucked.

 

Baseball already does that.

All players are eligible to be drafted coming out of high school. If they aren't picked, or choose not to sign they can play in college and are eligible again after their junior year at a four-year college and their sophomore year at a JUCO.

 

What about that is fucked?

 

Hey, the world needs clipboard holders too.

I'd assume it's just part of the process of being a senior college football player. You know they have little to no shot. They know they have little to no shot. But it's the only time in their lives they're going to have any shot at all. So what does it hurt to set up a few workouts? Maybe you do well enough to earn a free agent contract with somebody and you end up spending three or four years making $300,000 a year as a third-string quarterback. That beats the hell out of selling insurance.
I mean, wasn't Matt Cassel once one of these players?

 

The system for basketball and Football is fucked, not hockey. Did not phrase that well.

 

Again, and as I mentioned in the original post, I have no problem with anyone chasing their dream. Not a damn thing wrong with that at all.
I also understand that this is the grand finale of their careers, that this is their last chance to give it a shot at a pro career, regardless if their chances range from slim-to-none.
It's just that I sometimes wonder if this is possibly--repeat "possibly"--an extension of what so many of us have offered on other posts regarding "overzealous parents" or friends who have nurtured, coddled and overpraised such athletes that they honestly believe they can experience that pro career.

 

Players, in all sports, should be allowed to enter the draft, take one semester off, go to camp, and unless they actually make a roster and appear in a regular-season game, return to college.

 

There's a big difference between a 12-year-old Little League player, though, and a guy who was good enough to play at a four-year college.
And unless these college players you're talking about are just totally pollyannish, or have total pieces of human crap advising them, they've got to have some sort of feel for what their pro prospects are. I mean, you don't just call up an NFL team and say you want a tryout and they give you one. If they're at a private workout for an NFL team it's because the team wants them there. That's hardly delusional.

 

They are probably not a homogenous group. Most are probably realistic and just want to know that they took their shot when they had a chance.

A few are probably victims of the self-serving bias and believe the only reason they didn't play in college was some factor that wasn't their fault.