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Christian McCaffrey (RB Stanford)

For those who want to see an 8 team playoff there is a lesson to be learned here.

And when a kid is playing for a 40k scholarship and risking a multi-million payoff so his coach can get a raise on his $3 mil salary and the local fans can get a boner I have no problem with what he is doing.
 
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Don't want to get hurt!!! Wah!!! Then fucking don't play tackle football. Go play tiddlywinks.

I'm pretty sure they have played plenty of tackle football games without any Wah!!! How many other games have these guys skipped out on? It's just one last game that doesn't mean shit. It's no different than "I have to go to work at 4 in the morning so I'm not going to get hammered." It's not that he has anything against his buddies. It's not that he doesn't like to go get plastered with them. His friends might call him a pussy but really, he's just not a fucking idiot.
 
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Of course, football is a team sport. I'm glad you mentioned this because it takes a team to win in football, not one man. Football is a violent game and injuries happen all the time. You can't predict them or otherwise nobody would get hurt. If someone goes down, "next man up." No excuses. "Next man up" is all you hear. So if these guys want to make a finacial decision and not risk injury for one game that is meaningless, I'm cool with that. Next man up. McCaffrey went to Stanford so he must be a pretty smart guy and he can make that choice himself.

Most starters sit out the last preseason NFL game as well. That's because they don't want to risk injury and it gives coaches a chance to play the marginal players more and give those players a chance to show their ability and possibly make the team. That's how I'm going to look at this. McCaffrey and Fournette's backups are being given opportunities while McCaffrey and Fournette (who have nothing left to prove) are avoiding injury for the future that actually matters.

It's nice to say "I'm going out there and play with my brothers" and all that rah rah stuff until you get hurt and regret it for the rest of your life when you've lost millions of dollars. But hey, you got to play in one extra college game (instead of possibly many more games in the pros) so it was worth it? Jaylon Smith says he would do it again if he had the chance. That's nice but it's easy to say what people want to think is "the right thing" after you're already past that point and can't go back. He can say anything he wants to make himself look as great as he can. My guess, if he knew he would get injured and it would cost him $19M in guaranteed money, there's no fucking way he plays in that game just to show that he's some special guy. I really think it's that simple. If someone came to you and said "hey, you can play in this game with your buddies but it's going to cost you $19M," we all know that you'd be stupid to give up that money to play in one meaningless football game. McCaffrey doesn't get the luxury of knowing if he'll get hurt or not but he can make a pretty damn smart decision, whether other people like it or not.

I'm not going to knock your stance on this, or @Dryden's. If the player chooses to play in the game, fine by me. If he gets hurt, that doesn't make him an idiot. But choosing not to play in this one last game isn't something that I'm going to call a player out on either. He has played in every other game (even after being eliminated from national championship contention) and every other bowl game. It's only one game. He doesn't shut it down every season once it's lost.
Well, there's no right or wrong answer here. I certainly don't think your opinion (or @OSU_Buckguy etc.) are wrong. I also understand the risk, etc. to guys like McCaffrey. I just think it's horse shit to bail on your team. I likewise don't like the precedent it sets.
 
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Well, there's no right or wrong answer here. I certainly don't think your opinion (or @OSU_Buckguy etc.) are wrong. I also understand the risk, etc. to guys like McCaffrey. I just think it's horse [Mark May] to bail on your team. I likewise don't like the precedent it sets.

"Precedent"? Don't you mean "president"?
 
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Who said it?

"All these young guys deciding to skip their bowl games
1f914.png
.I would do anything to play one more time with my brothers in that scarlet and gray"
Ironically "anything" precludes not skipping his senior season for NFL money. Wouldn't he be out there right now if he wanted?
:confused:
 
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Ironically "anything" precludes not skipping his senior season for NFL money. Wouldn't he be out there right now if he wanted?
:confused:

Yes a bit ironic coming from Zeke. Obviously the situation is different for all these guys. Don't think there's a concrete right or wrong that fits all scenarios. Zeke won the National Championship and was Offensive MVP with 246 yards and 4 TDs. Maybe he had nothing left to prove at this level. Maybe he knew how many of his "brothers" were also leaving the team and that coming back wouldn't be the same as playing with "his brothers". Maybe the tweet means he wishes he really had stayed for another year and wants others to at least consider that option seeing how much he misses it.

Kinda hard to assign too much animus to these guys. In all these cases (seeing as anyone with this choice will have necessarily been a superstar) these guys gave it all for their college team. Arguably their teams would not have been nearly as good without their contributions. I'm sure there will be exceptions to the rule. In any event, it doesn't negate a fan's prerogative to be either accepting or upset about such a choice. Just another instance of college athletics evolving. As always, the debate is: for the better, or for the worse?
 
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Bitch move, pure and simple. Then again, this is Stanford.....a school that goes out of its way to tell its students that each one of them is the most special, unique snowflake in the world and all of human history has been simply a prologue to their arrival on this earth.

Bitch move from a bitch school.
 
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Ironically "anything" precludes not skipping his senior season for NFL money. Wouldn't he be out there right now if he wanted?
:confused:

I think it's apples and oranges. I have no problem with a player skipping his senior season all the way back to when Robert Smith was the first at Ohio State (and was hated by much of the fanbase for doing it). The difference is that McCaffrey is still on this year's team. Is he going to stand on the sideline, 100% healthy in jeans and a jersey? Or is he just going to disappear on them? For most of that team's seniors, this is their last game of organized football. I'm sure they'd like to win it, but their star player has decided to walk out on them.

I'd be sympathetic if he had injury problems throughout his career, but he's been solidly healthy. Throw in the financial comfort zone that he grew up in and the value of his Stanford degree, and it all comes back to bitch move in my opinion.
 
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Quitter. "I" in team guy.

Of the thousands of kids who have played in "meaningless" bowl games with their teams over the years, few have sustained career ending injuries. I can't think of one, to be honest. I'm trying to give this selfish douche the benefit of the doubt.

Career ending isn't the issue. Anything that prevents you from fully preparing for the draft can cost you big bucks (Jaylon Smith comes to mind).

I genuinely do not understand the position that these kids owe anybody anything. The rules are set up so they essentially have to play college ball to get to the NFL. Coaches are paid millions. The athletic departments rake in millions. The kids get a participation ribbon.

When I am a member of a team I owe it to that team to give all I've got so long as I am a member of that team (as opposed to players who play in bowl games but bail on risky plays to stay safe). The decision on when to leave that team is something different. McCaffrey and Fournette have extenuating circumstances in that they are already nursing injuries. But that is irrelevant to me. They came to school to prepare for their career in the NFL no differently than a prospective lawyer, doctor or engineer. It is what Meyer and Saban sell them on during recruiting. It is how they were persuaded to join their respective teams in the first place. Not to "win one for the gipper" - but to get filthy rich using the extraordinary talent that made them a prime recruiting target in the first place. If I could come up with an analogy for playing in a bowl game versus preparing for the bar exam I would use it. But a top of the class student in a prestigious law program would't risk their mental faculties on the eve of such exams for the good old Harvard Crimson.

I am a college football fan and I hate to see this happening. But the players owe me nadda.
 
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I think it's apples and oranges. I have no problem with a player skipping his senior season all the way back to when Robert Smith was the first at Ohio State (and was hated by much of the fanbase for doing it). The difference is that McCaffrey is still on this year's team. Is he going to stand on the sideline, 100% healthy in jeans and a jersey? Or is he just going to disappear on them? For most of that team's seniors, this is their last game of organized football. I'm sure they'd like to win it, but their star player has decided to walk out on them.

I'd be sympathetic if he had injury problems throughout his career, but he's been solidly healthy. Throw in the financial comfort zone that he grew up in and the value of his Stanford degree, and it all comes back to bitch move in my opinion.
I'm not judging McCaffrey's move at all. It's just that Zeke, I love ya bud, but you can't be ripping on guys who leave school early for $$$ and say you'd "give anything" to have a game back when you left about 14 games of your own volition.
 
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