It’s always nice to hear that NFL players who left college early return to get their degrees, as a source of family pride.
Panthers quarterback Cam Newton did this offseason, and said he did it for his mother.
For former Washington defensive end Charles Mann, it was seeing his daughter graduate that sparked his return to school.
According to Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post, Mann has finally finished his college degree, 32 years after he left the University of Nevada to go onto a long and productive NFL career. He’ll walk through his graduation ceremony from Strayer University Saturday, and give the commencement address.
Mann said seeing his daughter Camille graduate from Southern Cal in 2010 was the spark he needed, and helped get him back on track to complete that business degree he started in the early 1980s.
“As happy as I was for her that day, I was sad for me,” Mann said. “I said, ‘Wow, she completed something that her dad never completed.’ And it just stuck in my craw, and I wanted to do something about it.”
There were some night classes at George Mason during his playing days, but they never amounted to anything. But in the fall of 2011, he started taking classes again, one on line and one on Strayer’s Virginia campus. Because he left Nevada 24 classes short of his degree, he needed three years of night school to get caught up. But now, he’s graduating cum laude, and hopes to serve as an example to others.
The only thing that could make it better is if, before he leaves campus, he nails a Triple Lindy.