I don’t know of any that received degrees and never went to class, but I presume there may be some. Most of the really good athletes opt for the NFL draft before completing college (i.e. sophmore or junior year).
Probably because there aren’t any, unless you want to count honorary degrees
Most of the really good athletes opt for the NFL draft before completing college
Leaving college early to get a job isn’t unique to college athletes. What is unique to them is getting a high paying job. Good for them. Since the NFL doesn’t allow teams to sign players right out of high school, they use colleges as their farm system. Nothing new here. Granted, there may be some players that have no business being there but for the most part, not all athletes are dumb asses.