[76lsjumb]

[quote author=81alum link=topic=16303.msg183263#msg183263 date=1482277876]
It has occurred to me that there is a possible altruistic motive.  Love is a very gifted athlete who has been playing in CMac's shadow.  Maybe CMac feels that if he (CMac) is not willing to commit for another year, it is only fair that he should clear the way for Love to play in a spotlight game.

So now there are two rationalizations of CMac's decision I could live with--loyalty to Bryce or that CMac is spooked by a hidden injury.  But I am clutching at straws.

For me, I don't see it as CMac clearing the way. I see it more as Shaw and the rest of the team possibly saying, "OK, you are no longer one of us. No offense, you are doing what is best for you. We understand and support your choice. We wish you well. But, now we must do what is best for those who are staying. So get out of the way." Next Man Up has to always trump sentiment. If Christian had kept the fact he was leaving to himself, even though he knew he was, took the reps, and played in the game, would that be doing the team a service? I don't think so. The fans may think so, but the team would know better. CMac may have made the hard choice and done the right thing. Perhaps we should applaud him, not excoriate him.
[/quote]

I'm not sure I understand why everyone is spending so much time coming up with other reasons to explain the decision...unless you think CMAC is lying about why he did it.  He himself said that he did it so he could concentrate on preparing for the draft.  He didn't say he was doing it so Love could get more touches or that it was better to degrade our chances to win this game in order to increase the chances to win more games next season when he wasn't here.

As for "Next Man Up trumping sentiment," my feeling is that "taking one for the team" trumps "Next Man Up."  Obviously, I'm a fan and not a teammate, but, as a fan, I will always admire the "taking one for the team" guy more than the guy who isn't, and I'm still skeptical that there would be unanimous support for a team captain who walks in and says, essentially, "I hope you guys do well, but I'm outta here."

Maybe I missed it in this rather lengthy thread, but I'm surprised that I haven't seen any discussion of what seems like the most analogous situation at Stanford -- all-star soccer players who have missed Stanford matches in order to play with the National Team.  Although that bothers me as well, at least in those instances the players were faced with conflicts based on actual circumstances -- missing the Stanford match[es] clearly hurt Stanford, but failing to show up when called would, presumably, clearly hurt their chances on the National team.  In CMAC's case, unless there is an undisclosed injury [which I'm assuming there isn't, or he would have said something, given that there is no way that the NFL evaluation process won't find it out anyway], his not playing clearly hurts Stanford, but it only hypothetically helps him, since the odds are that he wouldn't sustain an injury of consequence. 

[76lsjumb]

[quote author=81alum link=topic=16303.msg183263#msg183263 date=1482277876]
It has occurred to me that there is a possible altruistic motive.  Love is a very gifted athlete who has been playing in CMac's shadow.  Maybe CMac feels that if he (CMac) is not willing to commit for another year, it is only fair that he should clear the way for Love to play in a spotlight game.

So now there are two rationalizations of CMac's decision I could live with--loyalty to Bryce or that CMac is spooked by a hidden injury.  But I am clutching at straws.

For me, I don't see it as CMac clearing the way. I see it more as Shaw and the rest of the team possibly saying, "OK, you are no longer one of us. No offense, you are doing what is best for you. We understand and support your choice. We wish you well. But, now we must do what is best for those who are staying. So get out of the way." Next Man Up has to always trump sentiment. If Christian had kept the fact he was leaving to himself, even though he knew he was, took the reps, and played in the game, would that be doing the team a service? I don't think so. The fans may think so, but the team would know better. CMac may have made the hard choice and done the right thing. Perhaps we should applaud him, not excoriate him.
[/quote]

I'm not sure I understand why everyone is spending so much time coming up with other reasons to explain the decision...unless you think CMAC is lying about why he did it.  He himself said that he did it so he could concentrate on preparing for the draft.  He didn't say he was doing it so Love could get more touches or that it was better to degrade our chances to win this game in order to increase the chances to win more games next season when he wasn't here.

As for "Next Man Up trumping sentiment," my feeling is that "taking one for the team" trumps "Next Man Up."  Obviously, I'm a fan and not a teammate, but, as a fan, I will always admire the "taking one for the team" guy more than the guy who isn't, and I'm still skeptical that there would be unanimous support for a team captain who walks in and says, essentially, "I hope you guys do well, but I'm outta here."

Maybe I missed it in this rather lengthy thread, but I'm surprised that I haven't seen any discussion of what seems like the most analogous situation at Stanford -- all-star soccer players who have missed Stanford matches in order to play with the National Team.  Although that bothers me as well, at least in those instances the players were faced with conflicts based on actual circumstances -- missing the Stanford match[es] clearly hurt Stanford, but failing to show up when called would, presumably, clearly hurt their chances on the National team.  In CMAC's case, unless there is an undisclosed injury [which I'm assuming there isn't, or he would have said something, given that there is no way that the NFL evaluation process won't find it out anyway], his not playing clearly hurts Stanford, but it only hypothetically helps him, since the odds are that he wouldn't sustain an injury of consequence.