For a while in college I worked doing SAT prep type stuff for high school kids, and a lot of them were athletes/football players, so I know exactly where you're coming from. A lot of these kids really just didn't have any focus on academics growing up, then come junior/senior year some college comes knocking and it's like whoa I gotta get my shit together. I don't know what was more frustrating, seeing kids who were clearly pretty bright and could have been college bound even without sports but had no support system growing up, or seeing kids not even have that far to go to get in but just completely blow it off. Even if you want to go to college just to play ball, you just gotta get through these few classes, but you know, kids...

Even with guys I knew would be trouble though, I don't think I've ever heard someone straight up tell a recruiter "Nah man, I'd rather be a gangbanger"