I'm late to the BC-Goose exchange but a comment: I think Stanford fans kid themselves if they think Andrew Luck, AJ Tarpley, Bryce Love, Jonathan Martin, Ben Gardner, etc. are "football first" guys in the sense that the NFL wants. Each made life decisions and/or have a personality type that is very much not the go out on your shield type. There's nothing wrong with that. And I could have picked dozens of other lesser football players but instead chose to pick a handful of absolutely spectacular football players who famously excelled at Stanford. Clearly you don't need to be a meathead with no prospects in life beyond football to be really, really good at football. But it's just self-delusion to think that having, shall we say, a neuroatypical brain compared to the NFL norm and having options beyond football make you just as likely to be in it for the long haul. I bet there are NFL teams that after Luck and Tarpley will prefer an Arizona State player to a Stanford player, all things being equal, to get a return on their investment. I bet the Colts would have rather had Andrew Luck with Tom Brady/Aaron Rodgers' mentality than what they did get.
It's less clear what this means for us on the college level. As is evident from the spectacular football accomplishments of the guys I mentioned, you don't need to be a Trent Murphy/Vontaze Burfict maniac to be great in college. There's a sweet spot for Stanford where guys who are neuroatypical from the NFL norm and/or have much better non-football professional prospects can still do great things in college football. Nonetheless, I think there are cumulative, cultural, and law of averages effects at play where a roster full of this mentality has an adverse competitive effect.
It's less clear what this means for us on the college level. As is evident from the spectacular football accomplishments of the guys I mentioned, you don't need to be a Trent Murphy/Vontaze Burfict maniac to be great in college. There's a sweet spot for Stanford where guys who are neuroatypical from the NFL norm and/or have much better non-football professional prospects can still do great things in college football. Nonetheless, I think there are cumulative, cultural, and law of averages effects at play where a roster full of this mentality has an adverse competitive effect.