http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/sp...0A&oref=slogin
Medical Arena Is Calling Him
By
ALAN SCHWARZ
Published: April 18, 2008
With shoulder pads and helmets littered around the locker room and undressed 300-pound linemen blasting hip-hop and cutting up, Chris Anthony sat at his locker stall, silent and unmoved. He hunched over his “Principles of Biology” lab book and boned up on erythrocytes and immoglobulins.
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John Dunn for The New York Times
Chris Anthony, a wide receiver for the New York Dragons, has his sights set on a pre-med program.
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G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times
After a practice this week, he attended a biology class at Hunter College.
“Maintaining a stable pH and electrolyte composition of interstitial fluid ... ”
Practice until 2 p.m., class at 5:30, lab at 7 — this Tuesday was typical for Anthony, a standout wide receiver for the Arena Football League’s New York Dragons who also stands one class away from applying to medical school. Two days after catching three touchdown passes against the Columbus Destroyers, and mere hours after being slammed into the boards at the Nassau Coliseum by an overzealous teammate, Anthony was at
Hunter College in Manhattan taking a pop quiz and peering into a microscope at sickle cells.
Motivated in part by an opponent’s death during a game three years ago, Anthony plans to walk away from arena football to attend medical school next fall. Meanwhile, he will juggle his current career while preparing for his next, as one of the nation’s only 29-year-olds who can dissect a fetal pig as well as a zone D.
