Cornerback Bryon Fields and his father—also named Bryon—were profiled on Outside The Lines Sunday morning on ESPN about their choice to redshirt—but not in the traditional sense of the term.
The piece, aimed at exploring the decisions made by parents to have their kids repeat a grade before entering high school in order to give them a better chance at athletic success, focused on the junior's decision to repeat the eighth grade.
During the segment, the elder Bryon Fields candidly admits that the decision was made with his son's athletic future in mind, noting that Bryon had always been an 'A' student. By repeating eighth grade, Fields retained all four years of his high school eligibility and gave his body more time to mature.
"You get very few opportunities in life to manufacture time," Fields' father said in the piece, noting that Duke only offered his son a scholarship in October of his senior year, at which point he already would have been in college had he not repeated a grade.
Fields—who racked up 70 tackles and a pick-six in 2014—said he got some questions from friends wondering why he was staying behind a year, but added that the extra year made a big difference in allowing him to be comfortable on the gridiron.
"I really developed some confidence," he said. "I was the man on that team."
The ESPN segment cited figures showing that the percentage of six-year-olds in kindergarten has increased by a factor of five, though other factors besides sports contribute to that number.
Count legendary St. Anthony high school basketball coach Bob Hurley—father of former Blue Devil point guard and newly-minted Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley—among those who do not approve of the route taken by Fields and others.
"The really good guys used to play up an age," Bob Hurley said in the piece. "We've completely turned that around."
During a panel discussion moderated by ESPN's Bob Ley following the profile, athletic counselor Chris Stankovich noted that less than 5 percent of high school athletes go on to play at the next level, so redshirting prior to high school does not guarantee anything. But he also said that the stigma surrounding repeating a grade for potential athletic gain is starting to dissipate.
Other critics of the philosophy voiced concerns that the additional year could put extra pressure on kids to perform at a high level, even suggesting that youth athletics in the United States could morph into the professional academies seen in Europe.
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