Selfish or Smart? Stanford RB says he won't play in Bowl game - wants to get ready for NFL draft

The university has been raking in money off of him for at least the last two years.

You can buy an "officially licensed" Christian McCaffrey Stanford jersey online:

http://www.fsteamshop.com/shop-by-player/christian-mccaffrey-jersey

It's fine for him to look out for himself and make whatever decision he decides is in his best interest.

Leonard Fournette is skipping his team's bowl game as well. I am not sure how high McCaffrey will go but should be pretty high. Even so the rookies have a rookie pay scale that severely limits their earnings for the first 3 or 4 seasons. But, how about Sam Bradford? He was the last person to be selected first before the rookie pay scale went into effect. He had something like $54 million guaranteed. How much would have insurance policy paid out? $2 or 3 million? Anyone would have been an idiot to have played in a bowl game to risk that much guaranteed money that could help ensure the long-time financial security of his family and friends.

It reflects poorly on his character. Some NFL teams care about that.

Can't blame any projected early round pick after what happened to the Notre Dame kid in last year's Bowl Game.

PTI covered this last week with Fournette.

The obvious answer is that of course he should skip if he has a reasonable chance being a first round pick. And it becomes more obvious the closer to #1 he gets.

Lets say that the player gets insurance for this final game; it would never be close to his guaranteed money, let alone what he might earn for his career. And even if it was, what if he never actually got to play in the NFL due to a college game injury?

If the kid gets injured in the third game of his career, at least he can say he was an NFLer (with way more money than an insurance policy would provide).

He has earned way more for the school than the "lost leader" the education provides.

Smart. Football is a business, he is treating it as such. The NFL, NCAA, universities and YOU THE CONSUMER have made it that way.

I like that players are doing this, it exposes how meaningless the majority of these bowl games are. They are nothing but a cash grab by the NCAA and the universities.

my thought... wrote:

It reflects poorly on his character. Some NFL teams care about that.

How quickly do you think the school/team would drop him (or any other player) if they thought he might cost them millions of dollars?

The schools are the ones who chose to make college football a business. The foreseeable end result of that decision is that players treat it as a business too.

It's selfish but i can understand it. If more players start doing this the bowl games will become a joke. And yes I love bowl games!

my thought... wrote:

It reflects poorly on his character. Some NFL teams care about that.

Good one, made me laugh.

I'm wondering if this will influence the play-offs to expand quicker. Even Fournett played on his bum ankle for the Florida game. I'd be willing to bet if these were play-off games they might not roll as quickly. So start having these minor bowls be the initial rounds of the play-offs and you get that extra game out of these pawns...er kids.

There's already an article on-line about how this could lead to kids eventually skipping their whole last season. I hope a few kids do push that envelope (like I hope more kids play basketball overseas till their one year maturation period is over) to force the NFL to come up with a viable feeder system where the truly NFL-bound players get paid.

ummmmm no wrote:

It's selfish but i can understand it. If more players start doing this the bowl games will become a joke. And yes I love bowl games!

The bowl games have been a joke for a long time.

Initially, I was against McCaffrey's decision. Now, I changed my tune. Last year, Notre Dame had a first round NFL talent at LB, his name was Jaylon Smith. NFL scouts had him as a top 5 pick, unfortunately he tore his knee up (acl, lcl, plus nerve damage) in the Fiesta Bowl. He lost about $19M and he is still sidelined and has yet to see the the practice field after the Dallas Cowboys drafted him in the 2nd round.

Smith may never play football again. Bowl games today are meaningless, if they are NOT part of the College Football Playoff.

McCaffrey is smart and doesn't want to suffer a career ending injury in a meaningless game before the draft. Good for him.

smart. college athletes are already exploited enough, at the risk of injury and foregone income, scholarships aside.

If he's worried about being injured why does he play football? Are bowl games more dangerous in some way?

If he's worried about being injured why does he play football? Are bowl games more dangerous in some way?

The correct answer is selfish and smart.

Selfishly smart.

College football is basically the equivalent of the minor leagues for the NFL.

In a nutshell, his football career could be over if he were to do something as trivial as rolling ankle while walking across campus or trip on a curb and shatter a kneecap. He could play in "the big game" only to suffer some career ending injury all in the name of honor and team spirit. Every athlete - HS, college or pro - is one injury or accident away from never playing again.

Isn't the point of higher education to get ready for the real world? In that case, him skipping an exhibition game is the proper move. The risk of Mr. McCaffrey is too great in regards to his career choice of professional football.

If he were working for a tech start up and they offered him millions on the stipulation that he had to skip final exams or leave Stanford a semester early, why wouldn't he? Football is a finite game with a brutal timeline. This isn't like skipping out on running in Terre Haute, football is much more brutal. The average NFL career is only 3 years and he needs to maximize all he can get out of the game and his body.

If this were the national semi finals it would be different, but playing in a bowl game that no one cares about is the right move for him. He's smart not to play by not risking injury.

Don't even get into the money aspect of it. The NCAA is the biggest monopoly around. The athletes get paid thousands while the schools and NCAA get paid billions. The NCAA just signed an $8.8 billion dollar extention with CBS for the next eight years to broadcast the tournament. The money is absurd, but the athletes get paid pennies on the dollar.

Avoiding the question wrote:

If he's worried about being injured why does he play football? Are bowl games more dangerous in some way?

What good would it do him? Is "Sun Bowl" champion going to boost his resume? Does it help his team advance in their league?, towards a national championship? If he had 200 yds rushing, 10 receptions and a kick-off return for a touchdown, would that increase his draft status (no, he already holds the NCAA single season yardage record). But getting ready for and killing the Combine will show the scouts what they want to know, metrics. Good move.