[Goose]

While you are right that a player who is ready to move on will move on, I think you underestimate how much players enjoy competing.  For many, this would be their last chance to play competitive football.


BC

This is an interesting psychological situation. When I was at Stanford, guys played a year as freshmen on the freshman football team, and then played three years of "varsity" football. I knew two football players fairly well and several others slightly. The last season was really a bittersweet experience. Unlike the guys who redshirt today, they knew exactly when they were "done", like it or not. Playing football was important to them, but they knew it was going to stop, and there was no way out of it. Playing football is also difficult, painful, time-consuming, and often frustrating. Most guys seemed to deal with it by a form of denial, where they just refused to think about the end until it came. Then, they just kind of steeled themselves to the fact that they were done and got on with life. The didn't talk about how hard it was to stop playing. They only wanted to talk about football with other guys from the team, and even then they mostly talked about the experience together, not the "game of football".

I don't know what players do today, but I would imagine when Senior year arrives, they have to contemplate not playing. It could happen to them involuntarily, i.e not asked back, so you can't ignore it. Many of your friends have exhausted their eligibility and will be gone. Others will have chosen to retire. Some are in the portal and very well may be gone. Your team isn't any more, and yet, you possibly can still continue. So, what do you do? Do you endure another year of pain, effort, etc, just to keep playing? You have now faced the end. Do you want to do that twice, or is it better to accept the inevitable now and call it a career? You loved what you have done, yet it can't be the same.

I can see this being a difficult choice. I can see real reasons to finish the last year playing elsewhere. It is a new team that you fully join. I can see calling it a career and getting away at the same time your class does (putting away the thing of a child). Hanging on makes sense to me only if there are specific goals you think you can still reach, or if you are playing to pay for school. In those cases, you know why you are there and what you need to do. Otherwise, I think the joy of the game becomes painful when "everything has changed" and they know it's ending. Maybe not though, YMMV.

[Goose]

While you are right that a player who is ready to move on will move on, I think you underestimate how much players enjoy competing.  For many, this would be their last chance to play competitive football.


BC

This is an interesting psychological situation. When I was at Stanford, guys played a year as freshmen on the freshman football team, and then played three years of "varsity" football. I knew two football players fairly well and several others slightly. The last season was really a bittersweet experience. Unlike the guys who redshirt today, they knew exactly when they were "done", like it or not. Playing football was important to them, but they knew it was going to stop, and there was no way out of it. Playing football is also difficult, painful, time-consuming, and often frustrating. Most guys seemed to deal with it by a form of denial, where they just refused to think about the end until it came. Then, they just kind of steeled themselves to the fact that they were done and got on with life. The didn't talk about how hard it was to stop playing. They only wanted to talk about football with other guys from the team, and even then they mostly talked about the experience together, not the "game of football".

I don't know what players do today, but I would imagine when Senior year arrives, they have to contemplate not playing. It could happen to them involuntarily, i.e not asked back, so you can't ignore it. Many of your friends have exhausted their eligibility and will be gone. Others will have chosen to retire. Some are in the portal and very well may be gone. Your team isn't any more, and yet, you possibly can still continue. So, what do you do? Do you endure another year of pain, effort, etc, just to keep playing? You have now faced the end. Do you want to do that twice, or is it better to accept the inevitable now and call it a career? You loved what you have done, yet it can't be the same.

I can see this being a difficult choice. I can see real reasons to finish the last year playing elsewhere. It is a new team that you fully join. I can see calling it a career and getting away at the same time your class does (putting away the thing of a child). Hanging on makes sense to me only if there are specific goals you think you can still reach, or if you are playing to pay for school. In those cases, you know why you are there and what you need to do. Otherwise, I think the joy of the game becomes painful when "everything has changed" and they know it's ending. Maybe not though, YMMV.