12-18-2018, 11:40 AM
Good for him. We lauded him for coming back (which, especially given how this season has gone, was not the most lucrative choice he could have made). He's been dinged up basically all year, and he reinjured the ankle against Cal. He's done his part. He's done enough.
As with all of these cases, I circle back to these points:
1. Semifinals and the Rose Bowl are different than other bowls, and a bowl's skip-ableness depends on context. I would be upset if a player sat out the Rose or a playoff game. I'd probably feel that way about another marquee game like the Cotton or the Orange, but not to the same degree. The other ones? Heck, I'd rather see the coaching staff get creative and see what the younger kids can do--development at this point is more important than the game result. The Sun Bowl is a nice game, and El Paso does a great job with it, but skipping it to heal up and train for the combine just doesn't get me fired up.
2. These kids don't get paid. It is super rational of them to avoid risking injury in an exhibition game so they can maximize their chances to get paid for what is likely to be at best a short pro career. The importance of this factor only goes up when it's a kid who has been injured numerous times wearing a Stanford jersey. (I know the game counts, but whether this season ends up with Stanford being 9-4 or 8-5 doesn't matter for much more than Shaw's next contract extension. We're not going to win or lose a recruiting prospect based on whether we beat Pitt or lose to Pitt. I'd like to end the season on a positive note, but I'd feel horrible if that came at the detriment to Bryce's career.)
3. Stanford and the coaches are not just employees tasked with winning football games, but like the faculty, they are meant to foster personal growth and help guide these young men to the next stage of their lives. For Bryce, that means a stint in the NFL before he goes to medical school. For Shaw to be the best mentor and guide to these young men that he can be, sometimes he probably needs to convince a kid to stay and improve draft stock, sometimes he needs to stay out of it, and sometimes he needs to have the player's back when that player is ready to leave the nest. How does it benefit Stanford football for Bryce to play in the Sun Bowl, further aggravate his ankle (or at least fail to let it fully heal), and then have his draft slot impacted? Bryce's draft slot and subsequent pro career is a walking billboard for Stanford football, just like Luck is for the Colts, Ertz is for the Eagles, and McCaffrey is for the Panthers. (And those are just the bigger name guys. DeCastro does the same thing for OL prospects.) The bigger their stars shine, the better for Stanford.
For me, I feel really lucky we got Bryce as long as we did. I wouldn't have begrudged him leaving after last year one bit--he certainly would have made more money, and he could have come back to finish his degree anytime, and then moved onto medical school. I'm proud of the choice he made, but I can't help feeling a little guilty about it, as returning for this year cost him money, and may have made his first chosen career (chronologically speaking, at least) a shorter, less successful one. Giving him extra time to heal seems like the least we could do in exchange for that decision to return.
Best of luck, Bryce. You were a great one.
As with all of these cases, I circle back to these points:
1. Semifinals and the Rose Bowl are different than other bowls, and a bowl's skip-ableness depends on context. I would be upset if a player sat out the Rose or a playoff game. I'd probably feel that way about another marquee game like the Cotton or the Orange, but not to the same degree. The other ones? Heck, I'd rather see the coaching staff get creative and see what the younger kids can do--development at this point is more important than the game result. The Sun Bowl is a nice game, and El Paso does a great job with it, but skipping it to heal up and train for the combine just doesn't get me fired up.
2. These kids don't get paid. It is super rational of them to avoid risking injury in an exhibition game so they can maximize their chances to get paid for what is likely to be at best a short pro career. The importance of this factor only goes up when it's a kid who has been injured numerous times wearing a Stanford jersey. (I know the game counts, but whether this season ends up with Stanford being 9-4 or 8-5 doesn't matter for much more than Shaw's next contract extension. We're not going to win or lose a recruiting prospect based on whether we beat Pitt or lose to Pitt. I'd like to end the season on a positive note, but I'd feel horrible if that came at the detriment to Bryce's career.)
3. Stanford and the coaches are not just employees tasked with winning football games, but like the faculty, they are meant to foster personal growth and help guide these young men to the next stage of their lives. For Bryce, that means a stint in the NFL before he goes to medical school. For Shaw to be the best mentor and guide to these young men that he can be, sometimes he probably needs to convince a kid to stay and improve draft stock, sometimes he needs to stay out of it, and sometimes he needs to have the player's back when that player is ready to leave the nest. How does it benefit Stanford football for Bryce to play in the Sun Bowl, further aggravate his ankle (or at least fail to let it fully heal), and then have his draft slot impacted? Bryce's draft slot and subsequent pro career is a walking billboard for Stanford football, just like Luck is for the Colts, Ertz is for the Eagles, and McCaffrey is for the Panthers. (And those are just the bigger name guys. DeCastro does the same thing for OL prospects.) The bigger their stars shine, the better for Stanford.
For me, I feel really lucky we got Bryce as long as we did. I wouldn't have begrudged him leaving after last year one bit--he certainly would have made more money, and he could have come back to finish his degree anytime, and then moved onto medical school. I'm proud of the choice he made, but I can't help feeling a little guilty about it, as returning for this year cost him money, and may have made his first chosen career (chronologically speaking, at least) a shorter, less successful one. Giving him extra time to heal seems like the least we could do in exchange for that decision to return.
Best of luck, Bryce. You were a great one.