12-25-2016, 11:22 PM
I have it on extremely good authority that team members think that his quitting is "bullshit". I infer that they are publicly staying together so as not to create or inflame a distracting controversy. And Coach Shaw's statement expresses more for what he didn't say that for what he did. He isn't pleased either.
It isn't to us fans that he owes an allegiance, it's to his teammates. They and the coaches have relied on his presence to create an offensive scheme, an individual game plan and individual plays. And now at the 11th hour, in a game they hope to turn into a 10-3 season he backs out on his teammates. Bad for his team and damaging for the Stanford brand of athletes who seldom leave early and certainly not during the course of their season. The rationalization that it gives an opportunity to Love to get a headstart on the season is just a lame excuse for an inexcusable action. That's definitely not why he's leaving. It's ultimately about finances.
I think the idea that the Sun Bowl isn't worth his playing for is a specious argument at best. After the loss to U of W, the team was still playing for the best bowl they could get into, so the games WERE meaningful to them. (And many of us were speculating about just which bowl game that was). Like it or not, the Sun Bowl is the best one they could get, so to say it is meaningless just devalues that game and all the others they had to win to get there.
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It isn't to us fans that he owes an allegiance, it's to his teammates. They and the coaches have relied on his presence to create an offensive scheme, an individual game plan and individual plays. And now at the 11th hour, in a game they hope to turn into a 10-3 season he backs out on his teammates. Bad for his team and damaging for the Stanford brand of athletes who seldom leave early and certainly not during the course of their season. The rationalization that it gives an opportunity to Love to get a headstart on the season is just a lame excuse for an inexcusable action. That's definitely not why he's leaving. It's ultimately about finances.
I think the idea that the Sun Bowl isn't worth his playing for is a specious argument at best. After the loss to U of W, the team was still playing for the best bowl they could get into, so the games WERE meaningful to them. (And many of us were speculating about just which bowl game that was). Like it or not, the Sun Bowl is the best one they could get, so to say it is meaningless just devalues that game and all the others they had to win to get there.
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