[OutsiderFan]

There probably was a bit of conflation to the original post in this thread. I tried to distill the motivation for it by pointing out the different things that inspired it, but the main point was this:

The Jonathan Martin incident has led to a completely outrageous groupthink among many NFL people that maybe Stanford football players might somehow be too soft for the NFL.  They are not saying Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, Rice, the Ivies, military academies, or even the generic "academically or intellectually oriented football player," no, they are singling out Stanford.

This prevailing thinking isn't bothersome because all Stanford football players might be subject to more scrutiny because Martin went to Stanford, as ridiculous as that is.  The reason it pisses me off is because the evidence shows few teams are as physically and mentally tough as Stanford football teams comprised of the same players who are now going to be questioned.

The football culture is basically saying it would rather build teams composed of uneducated, socially unadjusted "dumb jocks" motivated by anger, who can't control their emotions, than we'll-rounded, self-motivated and socially well-adjusted ones who have proven they can be just as physically and probably more mentally tough than the seemingly preferred "dumb jocks."

Not only is this advocating for something as a solution that isn't the best available one according to hard evidence (my greatest source of frustration as a human being), this mentality is also potentially exacerbating a bias against intellectualism already prevalent in society.  Given how influential sports and the athletes who play them are, one of the places the society can be influenced to value education and intellectualism more is through sports.

Jim Harbaugh, David Shaw, and the Stanford community have worked their tails off, and through the power of ideas, pulling from the smallest talent pool of any of its peer football playing schools, established Stanford football as what it is today.  Now, we have NFL people basically questioning it all, and even potentially putting Stanford in a defensive position on the recruiting trail, when it is 40-6 in its last 46 games played?

No NFL scouts are questioning Oregon player toughness or suggesting that because they went to Oregon they need more scrutiny to make sure they are tough enough for the NFL. So why the hell should Stanford players be questioned?  This game IS a proxy battle of ideas.  The NFL people don't give Stanford a chance against Oregon, and if Oregon wins, they have no reason to question their skepticism of Stanford football players.  But if Stanford wins, they do.  Given the implications that has, a Stanford win has the potential to influence positive changes in the football culture.  And it may be a stretch, but it seems such an outcome can also in turn influence the greater society or at least set conditions for a positive evolutionary step forward.

At a time when a former Stanford player who helped establish Stanford football as physically and mentally tough is having his toughness questioned because he went to Stanford, there is no better possible way for the Stanford football community to help him than by beating the Oregon Ducks tonight.  If Stanford does win, we will be hearing a lot less questioning of Martin's toughness, and probably see a big uptick in transcript requests for college football players from NFL people.

[OutsiderFan]

There probably was a bit of conflation to the original post in this thread. I tried to distill the motivation for it by pointing out the different things that inspired it, but the main point was this:

The Jonathan Martin incident has led to a completely outrageous groupthink among many NFL people that maybe Stanford football players might somehow be too soft for the NFL.  They are not saying Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, Rice, the Ivies, military academies, or even the generic "academically or intellectually oriented football player," no, they are singling out Stanford.

This prevailing thinking isn't bothersome because all Stanford football players might be subject to more scrutiny because Martin went to Stanford, as ridiculous as that is.  The reason it pisses me off is because the evidence shows few teams are as physically and mentally tough as Stanford football teams comprised of the same players who are now going to be questioned.

The football culture is basically saying it would rather build teams composed of uneducated, socially unadjusted "dumb jocks" motivated by anger, who can't control their emotions, than we'll-rounded, self-motivated and socially well-adjusted ones who have proven they can be just as physically and probably more mentally tough than the seemingly preferred "dumb jocks."

Not only is this advocating for something as a solution that isn't the best available one according to hard evidence (my greatest source of frustration as a human being), this mentality is also potentially exacerbating a bias against intellectualism already prevalent in society.  Given how influential sports and the athletes who play them are, one of the places the society can be influenced to value education and intellectualism more is through sports.

Jim Harbaugh, David Shaw, and the Stanford community have worked their tails off, and through the power of ideas, pulling from the smallest talent pool of any of its peer football playing schools, established Stanford football as what it is today.  Now, we have NFL people basically questioning it all, and even potentially putting Stanford in a defensive position on the recruiting trail, when it is 40-6 in its last 46 games played?

No NFL scouts are questioning Oregon player toughness or suggesting that because they went to Oregon they need more scrutiny to make sure they are tough enough for the NFL. So why the hell should Stanford players be questioned?  This game IS a proxy battle of ideas.  The NFL people don't give Stanford a chance against Oregon, and if Oregon wins, they have no reason to question their skepticism of Stanford football players.  But if Stanford wins, they do.  Given the implications that has, a Stanford win has the potential to influence positive changes in the football culture.  And it may be a stretch, but it seems such an outcome can also in turn influence the greater society or at least set conditions for a positive evolutionary step forward.

At a time when a former Stanford player who helped establish Stanford football as physically and mentally tough is having his toughness questioned because he went to Stanford, there is no better possible way for the Stanford football community to help him than by beating the Oregon Ducks tonight.  If Stanford does win, we will be hearing a lot less questioning of Martin's toughness, and probably see a big uptick in transcript requests for college football players from NFL people.