John Urschel: The 300 Pound Mathematician Who Hits People For a Living

HughPickens.com writes: Kate Murphy writes at NYT about mathematician John Urschel whose latest contribution to the mathematical realm was a paper for the Journal of Computational Mathematics with the impressively esoteric title, "A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fiedler Vector of Graph Laplacians." "Believe me, I am aware that terms such as multigrid, Fiedler, and vector are not words that people use in their daily lives," says Urshel.

But as an offensive guard for the Baltimore Ravens, John Urschel regularly goes head to head with the top defensive players in the NFL and does his best to keep quarterback Joe Flacco out of harm's way. "I play because I love the game. I love hitting people," Urshel writes. "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. This is a feeling I'm (for lack of a better word) addicted to, and I'm hard-pressed to find anywhere else."

Urschel acknowledges that he has faced questions from NFL officials, journalists, fans and fellow mathematicians about why he runs the risk of potential brain injury from playing football when he has "a bright career ahead of me in mathematics" but doesn't feel able to quit. "When I go too long without physical contact I'm not a pleasant person to be around. This is why, every offseason, I train in kickboxing and wrestling in addition to my lifting, running and position-specific drill work."

Comments

Keeps the brain sharp

[weilawei]

I prefer cycling and climbing myself; not really into hitting things/being hit. Sitting in a chair all the time isn't healthy.

Discrimination

[GigaplexNZ]

Urschel acknowledges that he has faced questions from NFL officials, journalists, fans and fellow mathematicians about why he runs the risk of potential brain injury from playing football when he has "a bright career ahead of me in mathematics"

Funny how the NFL officials only care about potential brain injury on players who are good at math. If the risk of brain injury was truly that high, nobody should be playing it.

Re:Discrimination

[disposable60]

I think the answer here is that an NFL career pays rather better than an Academic one. If he can retire with his faculties intact, he won't have to chase grants and prizes to be comfortable.

Re:Sociopath

[LaurenCates]

I'm a neurotic workout fiend. I have been since I was in my late 20s.

Bear in mind, I wasn't an athletic kid. Not because I had no inclinations, I just lacked confidence and being an introvert didn't help matters much.

So I took up martial arts - any kind anyone would teach me - and my husband would tell me the difference was unbelievable. Much better than just trying to run alone or work out in my basement. Apparently, it wasn't just being in shape that was affecting me: it was also the fact that I would interact with people, and once I knew what I was doing, I'd be able to teach newcomers as well. I also slept better at night and lost weight. It's physical AND mental.

I'm not saying all introverts have to do this, but I become intolerable if I spend too long coming home at night just to sit and watch TV until bedtime. Hubby's come to accept that I have to work out at least five days a week, at least two hours a night, in order to maintain this. And that's fine with both of us, but for anyone to assert that I might be a special case hasn't ever taken part in an athletic activity which promotes interaction with other people.

You'd find that people who aren't training to be pros, but work out that much, are probably more common than you think.