‘I missed talking math with people’: why John Urschel left the NFL for MIT

The former Baltimore Ravens guard had a lucrative career in professional football. But he chose to concentrate on his first love in academia

John Urschel lifts the blinds in his second-floor office in the mathematics department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Outside is Cambridge in all of its springtime splendor on a mid-April afternoon. Everything about his office says college professor" - the computer on one side of the desk, the stack of papers on the other, the books on the shelves behind him.

He grins through his beard and his eyes sparkle behind his glasses when he describes his research in linear algebra. When he gestures enthusiastically, you can imagine those huge hands protecting his quarterback from opposing pass rushers - which he once did as a guard for the Baltimore Ravens.