Bradley said he was proud that Rolle had set the groundwork for a life after sports. Rolle and his foundation have made strides toward raising the $5 million it will cost to open the clinic in the Bahamas. Rolle’s decision to study for a master’s degree in medical anthropology here will help him build an education foundation for his medicinal and philanthropic career.

Image Rolle training on a rugby field at Oxford. He practices with the rugby team but has resisted overtures from the coach to play. Credit... Andrew Testa for The New York Times

“It shows real character on his part that he’s giving up the chance to sign a big N.F.L. contract and going to Oxford,” Bradley said. “The experience he’ll have will last a lifetime, while the context of his experience in pro football compared to college football will not be as different as his experience in Oxford will be from the non-football life he’s led.”

Rolle has been here three weeks  long enough that reality has overtaken expectation. He said he had no regrets. He said that nothing had better epitomized and reinforced his Rhodes experience than his unexpected friendship with Aisha Saad.

Saad, a Rhodes scholar from the University of North Carolina who is studying environmental policy, is a native of Egypt and a practicing Muslim who wears a hijab. She and Rolle agree that social constructs of undergraduate life would probably have precluded them from becoming friends in college. But on the seven-hour flight to London from Washington, linked by the serendipity of alphabetical order, Rolle and Saad talked nonstop about everything from global warming to gender equity, race, politics and family. (Saad has three younger brothers and Rolle four older brothers.) Some conversations were in English, others Spanish. There was little talk of football.

“I think other people were just as surprised as we were that we got along so well,” Saad said.

The two even played pranks on their fellow Rhodes scholars, making them dance to pass an imaginary toll booth, complete with beeping sound effects, in order to get to the bathroom.

“We got little jigs, shoulder bops and hip wiggles,” Rolle said, laughing.

Worried that Rhodes scholars would be stuffy, Rolle knew by the time he landed in London that he would fit in. Neither he nor Saad drinks alcohol, so they have avoided the popular pub scene, opting instead for four-hour debates.

“You definitely see his competitive side come out,” Saad said of Rolle. “Some conversations, we say, ‘We’re going to table this and continue it next week.’ ”