[jacket3ree]

People in grief respond in different ways.  Some of you are angry.  I am simply sad.

I wish I was angry.  Yeah, maybe I am. I usually respond to something that makes me angry by laughing at it.  I too would love to see Stanford embarrass ND on national TV.  Not the old way with a beat down, but the old, old way just by winning when ND is clearly better.

But others are feeling different passions now, and these passions are sometimes expressed in ways that seem less than civil....The atmosphere that made the Cardboard so different from invective-filled sports boards may also be a casualty of the decline of Stanford football.

I tend to disagree with this. The board is very civil. Heck, grammar matters.  I frequent other sports boards. I frequent other hobby boards - hi fi and woodworking in particular. There are a lot of similarities. I'm right, you're wrong.  On one of the woodworking boards, people were tossed for how personal the argument about left tilt table saws were superior to right tilt table saws became. Well, that is completely understandable.  Right tilt table saws are for communists and people looking to cut their hand off.  I try to hold discourse as if we are across beer bottles or cans (your choice, but there's probably a board somewhere where someone was banned over that argument.)  When I got a little too much the anonymous internet guy with a keyboard, I took a break. 

The endangerment of football as a sport at Stanford does not seem to have registered on people.  By several accounts, ending the program was considered prior to Harbaugh's hiring.  Even then, the program was not sitting well within a elite academic institution. 

Could we lose football?  Every time a coach is replaced, there is soul-searching about Stanford athletics, but when the most successful coach in Stanford history is replaced there will be more than soul-searching.  In the minds of most of the Stanford community, David Shaw has stood against the rising tide of unfavorable conditions.  His personal example and his reputation as "the conscience of college football" has held back the existential debate over whether Stanford should be in the football business at all.  As the rest of college football gets increasingly slimy, at least Stanford faculty, students, Trustees and fans could rationalize to themselves, "but we are not like the rest of them.  We are resisting those trends.  We have David Shaw.  We have a purpose and that purpose is to show the rest of the nation what college sports really SHOULD look like."  Naive certainly, but charming in its way and oh-so-Stanford-like.  The Camelot of college football. 

Was anyone talking about dumping football before Harbaugh was hired?  I don't recall that.  Sure Walt Harris sucked the life out of everything, he clearly wasn't it, nor was Teevens, but there is always another coach. Who might be about the same, worse, or better. (That should cover it.)  Stanford could lose football and leave the Pac12.  But the Home of Champions doesn't do that. The Home of Champions competes. The Home of Champions will not quit, the Home of Champions will not die. I heard that somewhere......hmmm, maybe that is better with an animal mascot.  Hey, let's start talking about the nickname. Ninety five percent of our problems stem from a lame Ivy League nickname. And black trim. 

But seriously, football pays the bills. It is a sea change for Stanford to win national titles every year without football paying for it all. Stanford could opt out and college football would notice.  Then college football would move on along.  It is more professionalized and crazy than ten years ago, but they were saying that ten years ago. And 50 years ago. And when the sport started.  Ringers and paraprofessionals have been there from the start.  Personally, I'd go with a little less "unbearable lightness of being Stanford" and figure out how to get recruiting, player development, and coaching back to where they were.  Dropping down a level doesn't make any sense on the West Coast. There is no level down to drop.  Then football is an expense and as fun as football is just as an expense, it is the lead revenue dog.  It sucks to lose. It sucks to lose Big Game in epic fashion. But, let's not lose our heads.

But we know what happened to Camelot.

We eat ham and jam and spam a lot?

So I am quite serious when I suggest that the real choice is not between David Shaw and some collage of a coach that people imagine will have all the right characteristics.  The choice could well be between David Shaw and....nothing at all.

With the most civility I can muster, oh no you don't. That isn't the choice: David Shaw or nothing. 

There are lots of choices.

David Shaw gets to choose whether he can and will put the energy in to turning the aircraft carrier around.

Muir gets to choose whether to let Shaw make that choice.

Mur's bosses get to choose whether they will throw the University's considerable resources behind it all, or if they want a recently renovated single-event paperweight anchoring the El Camino Real frontage as their legacy.

Strike that. Way too serious. Teejers is right. It's just football. Stanford will muddle along like it has for 125 years or so. A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants.



.....way too much seltzer this year. Way too much.

[jacket3ree]

People in grief respond in different ways.  Some of you are angry.  I am simply sad.

I wish I was angry.  Yeah, maybe I am. I usually respond to something that makes me angry by laughing at it.  I too would love to see Stanford embarrass ND on national TV.  Not the old way with a beat down, but the old, old way just by winning when ND is clearly better.

But others are feeling different passions now, and these passions are sometimes expressed in ways that seem less than civil....The atmosphere that made the Cardboard so different from invective-filled sports boards may also be a casualty of the decline of Stanford football.

I tend to disagree with this. The board is very civil. Heck, grammar matters.  I frequent other sports boards. I frequent other hobby boards - hi fi and woodworking in particular. There are a lot of similarities. I'm right, you're wrong.  On one of the woodworking boards, people were tossed for how personal the argument about left tilt table saws were superior to right tilt table saws became. Well, that is completely understandable.  Right tilt table saws are for communists and people looking to cut their hand off.  I try to hold discourse as if we are across beer bottles or cans (your choice, but there's probably a board somewhere where someone was banned over that argument.)  When I got a little too much the anonymous internet guy with a keyboard, I took a break. 

The endangerment of football as a sport at Stanford does not seem to have registered on people.  By several accounts, ending the program was considered prior to Harbaugh's hiring.  Even then, the program was not sitting well within a elite academic institution. 

Could we lose football?  Every time a coach is replaced, there is soul-searching about Stanford athletics, but when the most successful coach in Stanford history is replaced there will be more than soul-searching.  In the minds of most of the Stanford community, David Shaw has stood against the rising tide of unfavorable conditions.  His personal example and his reputation as "the conscience of college football" has held back the existential debate over whether Stanford should be in the football business at all.  As the rest of college football gets increasingly slimy, at least Stanford faculty, students, Trustees and fans could rationalize to themselves, "but we are not like the rest of them.  We are resisting those trends.  We have David Shaw.  We have a purpose and that purpose is to show the rest of the nation what college sports really SHOULD look like."  Naive certainly, but charming in its way and oh-so-Stanford-like.  The Camelot of college football. 

Was anyone talking about dumping football before Harbaugh was hired?  I don't recall that.  Sure Walt Harris sucked the life out of everything, he clearly wasn't it, nor was Teevens, but there is always another coach. Who might be about the same, worse, or better. (That should cover it.)  Stanford could lose football and leave the Pac12.  But the Home of Champions doesn't do that. The Home of Champions competes. The Home of Champions will not quit, the Home of Champions will not die. I heard that somewhere......hmmm, maybe that is better with an animal mascot.  Hey, let's start talking about the nickname. Ninety five percent of our problems stem from a lame Ivy League nickname. And black trim. 

But seriously, football pays the bills. It is a sea change for Stanford to win national titles every year without football paying for it all. Stanford could opt out and college football would notice.  Then college football would move on along.  It is more professionalized and crazy than ten years ago, but they were saying that ten years ago. And 50 years ago. And when the sport started.  Ringers and paraprofessionals have been there from the start.  Personally, I'd go with a little less "unbearable lightness of being Stanford" and figure out how to get recruiting, player development, and coaching back to where they were.  Dropping down a level doesn't make any sense on the West Coast. There is no level down to drop.  Then football is an expense and as fun as football is just as an expense, it is the lead revenue dog.  It sucks to lose. It sucks to lose Big Game in epic fashion. But, let's not lose our heads.

But we know what happened to Camelot.

We eat ham and jam and spam a lot?

So I am quite serious when I suggest that the real choice is not between David Shaw and some collage of a coach that people imagine will have all the right characteristics.  The choice could well be between David Shaw and....nothing at all.

With the most civility I can muster, oh no you don't. That isn't the choice: David Shaw or nothing. 

There are lots of choices.

David Shaw gets to choose whether he can and will put the energy in to turning the aircraft carrier around.

Muir gets to choose whether to let Shaw make that choice.

Mur's bosses get to choose whether they will throw the University's considerable resources behind it all, or if they want a recently renovated single-event paperweight anchoring the El Camino Real frontage as their legacy.

Strike that. Way too serious. Teejers is right. It's just football. Stanford will muddle along like it has for 125 years or so. A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants.



.....way too much seltzer this year. Way too much.