4 out of 20 of the Smartest Professional Athletes have degrees in Economics...Just sayin'...

Sporting News names Smartest Athletes and some background on each of them...It pays to major in Economics...

SN names the 20 smartest athletes in sports

George Parros, F, Anaheim Ducks
• Age: 30
• On-ice accomplishments: One of hockey’s top enforcers: 694 career penalty minutes in 289 games.
• Alma mater, major, GPA: Princeton, economics, 3.18
• SAT score: 1250
• Languages: “English and Spanish. I don’t really speak Greek—I just think I can.”
• If I weren’t a professional athlete, I’d ... “Most likely (be) a business consultant. Either that or some sort of trader on an equity desk. ... In junior (hockey) I took a job as a runner at the Chicago Board of Trade to see if I liked it.”
• Nerdiest thing about me: “I do crosswords on the road and take some heat for that. I hate the New York Times one. USA Today is good for me. The New York Times one, it annoys me because they’ve got 16th century poets and stuff.”
• Smartest teammate I’ve had: “(Ducks goalie) Jonas Hiller. He can speak five languages or something.”


Ryan Fitzpatrick, QB, Buffalo Bills
• Age: 27
• On-field accomplishments: 2004 Ivy League MVP, first Harvard quarterback to rush for more than 1,000 career yards. In 2005 with the Rams, became the fifth quarterback in NFL history to throw for 300-plus yards in his debut.
• Alma mater, major: Harvard, economics
• SAT score: 1580
• Off-field/intellectual interests: “I’m an Apple technology junkie.”
• If I weren’t a professional athlete, I’d ... “Probably (have) done the Wall Street thing for a few years and then maybe branched out a little bit. But finance is what I’d be involved in.”
• Nerdiest thing about me: “That’s probably a better question for my wife. But I love Scrabble. I’m playing Scrabble on my iPad constantly.”
• Smartest teammate I’ve had: “Corey Chavous. The amount of knowledge that dude had about any football player in the locker room was crazy. He knew the name of my high school and my high school coach. He remembers everything about everybody.”


Matt Birk, C, Baltimore Ravens
• Age: 34
• On-field accomplishments: 6-time Pro Bowl selection
• Alma mater, major: Harvard, economics
• ACT score: 34
• What I’m reading now: “I just finished Band of Brothers. I never saw the miniseries, but I just read the book by Stephen Ambrose. It was unbelievable.”
• If I weren’t a professional athlete, I’d ... “I was offered a job out of college to do Wall Street and that whole thing, but then football came along, so I figured I was just delaying Wall Street for about six months. I didn’t think I’d even make the team. Everything happens for a reason.”
• Nerdiest thing about me: “I absolutely cannot dance. (But) just because I can’t doesn’t mean I don’t.”
• Smartest teammate I’ve had: “Robert Smith was pretty smart, and Pete Bercich with the Vikings. He and Robert used to have crazy discussions about physics, the fourth dimension. They might as well have been speaking another language.”


Alex Smith, QB, San Francisco 49ers
• Age: 26
• On-field accomplishments: 2004 Mountain West player of the year, 21-1 record as a college starter. 2005 No. 1 NFL draft pick, recaptured the 49ers’ starting job midway through last season.
• Alma mater, major, GPA: Utah, economics, 3.74. Graduated in two years.
• Languages: “A little Spanish. I wouldn’t say I’m fluent, but growing up in San Diego, I can get by.”
• Off-field/intellectual interests: “Traveling. This offseason alone I went to the Dominican Republic, London, France, Italy, Prague and Maui.”
• If I weren’t a professional athlete, I’d ... “One of my aspirations was to go to law school. I’m not totally sure I would’ve practiced law, but I wanted to get my J.D.”
• Nerdiest thing about me: “My teammates would probably say the reading. I mean, I read a lot. I’ve got a lot of random, useless knowledge.’’
• Smartest teammate I’ve had: “(49ers center) Eric Heitmann. He’s just a bright guy, a Stanford grad.”