The 300-Pound NFL Lineman in the Room
by Charles Murray
The Conversation
October 20th, 2008
Regarding Bryan's point that there are many reasons people don't complete college, it remains true that IQ plays a fundamental role. It was expressed perfectly by NYU sociologist Steve Goldberg: IQ is to success in life (or in college) as weight is to offensive tackles in the NFL. The correlation between weight and performance among starting NFL offensive tackles is probably close to zero. Lots of other qualities are more important. But you have to weigh 300 pounds before you have a shot. Same with IQ and college.
