Seaman Tomlinson - welcome aboard

Another Annapolis football player not going to the Fleet, and perhaps a byproduct of a military institution who thinks it should spend a lot of effort and time trying to be a sports institution.

Jason Tomlinson should be a commissioned officer preparing to begin a Naval career in surface warfare. Instead, the standout football player is still a midshipman and is working at the Naval Station facility on the Severn River.

Tomlinson elected not to graduate from the Naval Academy last May, a personal decision that stunned his coaches and fellow players with the football program. By all accounts, Tomlinson was on course - both academically and militarily - to graduate and simply chose not to do so.

"I came to realize during my senior year that the military just was not for me. I had been thinking about it for a long time, I prayed about it a lot and I had to do what I felt was right in my heart," Tomlinson said yesterday when contacted by The Capital.

"I did not think it would be fair to the men I would be serving alongside and leading to go into this with reservations and misgivings. My heart wasn't in it."

In life, we often find ourselves in positions where we have to do things because we have to honor to keep our obligations that we freely took.

I don't know if the fact that NFL scouts were interested in him or not. One way or another, he is going to pay six figures - or he will go to the fleet as an Enlisted Man.

Time to set an example. If he doesn't want to lead - he can follow. If it is a religious issue - get promoted fast enough and there are the options there for you.

Hat tip Spook86.