[Extra Point]

"But he is smug and arrogant.  He treats the press with disdain.  Watch all of his press conferences and he talks to the press as if they are all total idiots and as if he knows better than everyone else. "

I am not apologizing for Shaw and I would like to see what Nottingham can do too. But, the vast majority of the people in the press have never played football, coached at any level, broken down game film, devised a game plan, or evaluated players' abilities. Shaw, on the other hand, has been involved with football most of his life and coached at the highest levels. For every hour that a sports writer has evaluated Stanford football, Shaw has spent hundreds. Of course he knows more than the sports writers that we hold in such high esteem, like Willner, Chrumpacker and Ratto.

Shaw's main objective is to put the best football team he can on the field. His career depends upon it. The main objective of sports writers is to find quick "story lines" that will attract readers. Two things that every sport writer knows will get attention are a quarterback controversy and coaching incompetency. Most of the questions that Shaw had to address yesterday were in this vain. If I had to defend myself under similar conditions I would be pissed too. And, I doubt that I could conceal my emotion as well as Shaw did.

[Extra Point]

"But he is smug and arrogant.  He treats the press with disdain.  Watch all of his press conferences and he talks to the press as if they are all total idiots and as if he knows better than everyone else. "

I am not apologizing for Shaw and I would like to see what Nottingham can do too. But, the vast majority of the people in the press have never played football, coached at any level, broken down game film, devised a game plan, or evaluated players' abilities. Shaw, on the other hand, has been involved with football most of his life and coached at the highest levels. For every hour that a sports writer has evaluated Stanford football, Shaw has spent hundreds. Of course he knows more than the sports writers that we hold in such high esteem, like Willner, Chrumpacker and Ratto.

Shaw's main objective is to put the best football team he can on the field. His career depends upon it. The main objective of sports writers is to find quick "story lines" that will attract readers. Two things that every sport writer knows will get attention are a quarterback controversy and coaching incompetency. Most of the questions that Shaw had to address yesterday were in this vain. If I had to defend myself under similar conditions I would be pissed too. And, I doubt that I could conceal my emotion as well as Shaw did.