Survey: Some Blacks Expect Too Much of Sports

Although black athletes say sports help them get better grades and stay in high school, a Lou Harris survey shows too many have unrealistic expectations of getting college scholarships and professional contracts.

Fifty-nine percent of black high school athletes queried said they expected to play in college, and 43% said they could make it in professional sports.

Of whites, 39% thought they would get to play in college and 16% thought they had a shot at the pros.

Actually, no more than 1% of high school athletes make it in college sports, and only one in 10,000 goes on to the pros.

“It’s something that we’ve sold the black community decade after decade, that sport is the way out of poverty,” said Richard Lapchick, director of Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society. “This outlines the problems we have to get black students to focus on alternatives.”