There was a Big Celebration in Foxboro last week when the Patriots honored Tom Brady before a sold-out stadium crowd and his number 12 was retired.
There also was big news of a different sort about another Patriots alum earlier this month when 50-year old Pro Bowl safety Lawyer Milloy finally received his college diploma.
Milloy had played at the University of Washington—“UW” to those of us in the Northwest—from 1993-95 but did not graduate. After he was drafted on the second round in 1996 by the Patriots, he assured his mother he would return to school to get his degree.
“My mom was always about education,” recalls Milloy. “Playing sports was a bonus to doing everything else right, including education. I made that promise to her and obviously didn’t fulfill it because I had the opportunity to go into the NFL or even the major baseball leagues. When I reinstated years later to return to school, I looked at my earlier transcripts and it was evident where my mind was 25 years ago. It wasn’t on education as much as it should have been.”
Milloy was 50 credits short of graduating in 1996 when he applied for the NFL Draft. He also had played baseball at UW and twice was drafted by MLB teams.
“Going back to get my degree was something I often revisited in my mind these last 25 years,” Milloy recently told the Seattle Times. “But playing football, things outside of football, business, I just made excuses to be busy…to not do it. I think it was more my fear of getting back into a scholastic environment, learning again.”
Milloy credits his wife Claudine and their four daughters for encouraging him to enroll at UW in August, 2022. The classes were all online and assignments were due to be turned in three nights before midnight each week. He struggled at first with those deadlines. However, he eventually set up a schedule for his studies and successfully completed the papers. Although he technically graduated last March, he walked in UW’s commencement ceremonies this month.
“My biggest joy, besides my family’s joy, was seeing the football team include me in the picture of the current team’s graduates,” Milloy says. “I thought that was really cool; I felt like I finally completed my service there after all these years.”
We at NFL Alumni congratulate Lawyer Milloy on his accomplishment. During his playing days, he was a Super Bowl Champion and four-time Pro Bowler. Now he adds “College Graduate” to his list of achievements. We congratulate ALL of you who returned to college during or after your NFL days to earn a diploma.
