John Urschel: The NFL Mathlete (& His Mom)

My conversation with the only person qualified to use the Twitter handle @MathMeetsFball -- Baltimore Ravens' offensive lineman John Urschel. Urschel is getting major buzz this week after linebacker Chris Borland retired from the NFL to avoid the long-term health risks of football. Urschel weighed in on Derek Jeter's new website The Players' Tribune with a piece called "Why I Play Football." But that's not the question that drove me to call Urschel. What I set out to learn is how a man whose elementary school teachers considered him "mentally challenged" reached such a high level of achievement in sports AND academics. It was his mother. Once John Urschel gets started talking about his mother he has a a hard time stopping -- and it's hard to stop listening to the dramatic details.