John Urschel enrolls at MIT to pursue doctorate

It's no secret that Ravens' center John Urschel prides himself on his athletic pedigree. While Urschel's bread and butter is football, some would say he's a math geek first, and a football player second. Aside from being a NFL center, Urschel also holds both bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics from Penn State, and has also had his works published in peer-reviewed mathematical journals. But even then, Urschel is striving for an even more distinguished title.

In a Tweet sent Tuesday morning, Urschel announced that he would be starting his PhD in mathematics with MIT this offseason. He is listed as studying Spectral Graph Theory, Numerical Linear Algebra, and Machine Learning. While Urschel isn't a normal football player, MIT is no normal college either.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is regarded as one of the nation's top institutions of higher learning and post-secondary education. Technically speaking, Urschel would be the very first MIT alumni in the league when he earns his doctorate. It remains to be seen if the studies of the Ravens' potential starting center will interfere with the team's voluntary OTAs this offseason, but I'd imagine that Urschel will find a way to balance both football and math, as he always does.