As I sit in my hotel room anxiously awaiting move in day on campus, I turn on the Time Warner Sports channel. On is a game between Syracuse and Pittsburgh, an away game. The game is in the fourth quarter with 4:27 left and Syracuse is down 30-23. Quarterbacking is Bill Scharr. With barely any idea as to what year it is (except that there’s a no.44 on the field so it must be before ’98) the first player that is presented on the screen is Bill Scharr. So, naturally I googled him and the results I found were nothing short of interesting.
The article is from the New York Times archives from late August 1990. It is titled “Syracuse Is Facing Puzzle at Quarterback.” As I read along it stated that Scharr sat down former head coach Dick MacPherson mid-way through spring ball and essentially called it quits with his football career. He had one season left and he was the projected starter but did not want to finish out his career because of a complication on the field.
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Syracuse wanted an offense based off of running the ball and Scharr was a drop-back passer and could not compromise changing his game. Scharr is in the record books for the highest percentage of completed passes, with 63% in 1989. The way it sounds is Scharr just could not find himself in the Orange’s offense or MacPherson’s game plan.
It then went on to describe how Scharr was living life leisurely and looking for a job while many of his other peers took a different path, “Against a highly publicized backdrop of 38 players who gave up their eligibility to apply for the National Football League draft, Scharr gave up a final season to get on with his life.” In the reality of it though, Scharr knew he was not making it in the NFL so why waste his time and devotion when he could not even throw the ball as much as he wanted to. Scharr did the mature thing for his future and that was something that I’m sure was hard for the team and coaches to understand.
This is a heavy issue student-athletes deal with everyday though, especially males. Most males dream of going professional and put their education on the back burner. This is okay to get into college but after college if you don’t make the cut for the NFL or the NBA you’re not prepared for the real world. Scharr’s story is one that puts the life of a college athlete into perspective. How much can you give to the game when it all ends in four or five years if you’re not superior enough to make it to the pros? Education is key and if you are fortunate enough to get an athletic scholarship that plays for it, take full advantage of that.
As I finish writing this piece I watch Scharr pass the ball for 15 yards for a first down with 34 seconds left. They try to run, blocked, and again, blocked. You could see where Scharr was coming from, he did not fit into the offense they were running. Two incompletions later the game was over, Syracuse lost 23-30. For all we know this could have been the day Scharr knew he wanted to walk away and that a career was better then spending another year playing football and being behind in life. Plenty of other athletes probably have a similar story, but Scharr’s was interesting to me because this was the first thing that came up when researching his name. Maybe another young college athlete out there will see his story and know that it would be okay for them to step away and focus on a career after sports too.