The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Marcus Griffin: Receiving his T-Ring
04.13.2008 | Football
I just recently went and picked up my T-Ring from Coach Brown's office, so I'm pretty excited. It means a lot just to have the opportunity to come to The University of Texas to get an education and also play football. It's a goal that I had coming here, and I've actually succeeded in getting my T-Ring. For me to get it done my senior year and have an opportunity now to play in the NFL with that in hand, it's great.
It means so much to me to already have my T-Ring before I even start the process of the NFL. If I can make it there, it means I don't have to go back to school and my degree will be waiting when I'm done. If not, I haven't put all my eggs in one basket. I have a plan B.
My degree was in government. The summer of my junior year, I had an internship down at the Capitol. I got a lot of experience working with lobbyists there. My next door neighbor is a lobbyist and her friend is a parliamentarian for the Speaker of the House. To put it simply, during the sessions, she's the one who allowed people to speak. She was the spokesman for the Speaker of the House, Tom Craddick. I learned a lot of new things there. I learned how to write white papers, which is just like a brief research paper. If someone wants to know about a certain subject, there's already a little summary there, so they don't have to go research it themselves. I could see myself doing something like that to begin with, and from there, I'm pretty sure there will be other options to move up.
Having my T-Ring is also really going to mean a lot to my parents, so I'm excited to show it to them. It's one of the goals they had for me in life -- to graduate. I've finished up now and my brother Michael is taking classes and finishing up, and it's going to mean a lot to them. He's where I want to be in the NFL, and now I'm somewhere he wants to be, so we're basically cheering each other on.
Also, someone just pointed out to me that I now have a National Championship ring and a T-Ring and asked me how it's going to feel to wear both. I'm really so happy with the National Championship ring, because that's something that's so hard to accomplish and I did it with my teammates, but I'm also really glad I got this. It shows that I sacrificed for four years to get my education, and that's something that no one can take away from me.
When I think about it, all that hard work came for a good purpose. I enjoyed my four years here, and we won all four bowl games. I've got my degree and my T-Ring, and it means a lot to me.
Now I hope I can succeed coming up soon by getting a chance at another dream, to play in the NFL. The draft is in two weeks, so stayed tuned.
Hook 'em,
Marcus
