2017 and counting

Does anyone remember Y2K when the world was going to come to an end because every computer in the world would be compromised because they weren’t supposed to recognize 01/01/2000?

Here we are 17 years later wondering if someone far, far away wants to steal our identity.

The one thing that we know never changes around the new year is the playing of bowl games and the chance to see our favorite football teams and players. Well, even that has changed.

We could always count on the best players suiting up for their final game as a ‘fill in the blank’ mascot name. In the past week there were two players that were declaring for the NFL draft as underclassmen.

Since they are high profile players that will most likely go high in the draft and will get guaranteed money they did not want to risk injury that may cause some teams to think they are damaged goods and $20 million dollars is a huge gamble.

Stanford’s Christian McCaffery and Louisiana State’s Leonard Fournette sat out their team’s bowl game.

Stanford played in the Sun Bowl and LSU played in the Citrus Bowl. Stanford beat North Carolina 25-23 and LSU beat Louisville and Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson 29-9.

There was a lot of discussion about these two football players not wanting to risk an injury. Many felt that these guys were a bit selfish and were abandoning their teams.

Well, both of these guys are special talents to say the least. Fournette had been battling an ankle injury that really needs some TLC. Since it has been a bit chronic this year it was smart to sit the Citrus Bowl out and heal up.

What about McCaffery? He wasn’t injured. I’m not sure how much more McCaffery can prove to the football world.

One thing we did find out is that for Stanford to be more consistent they needed a QB that could make good throws and not rely on McCaffery to do everything including driving the team bus and lead the goofy Cardinal band as a director.

There was a time that players that were turning pro would play in a bowl game no matter what because they figured they could increase their draft stock by having a great game.

Evidently McCaffery didn’t think the exposure at the Sun Bowl was worth it and he’s probably right. This was the 83rd Sun Bowl game so there is a fair amount of tradition but the game is played in El Paso, Texas. How exciting is that? Last year it snowed!

I heard some folks grumble that these guys quit on their team. No, they were up front about why they were skipping the game and both teams were supportive of their teammate’s choice.

If anything it allowed other players an opportunity to fill those positions and succeed.

I heard others say well what would happen if they were one of the four teams that were in the playoffs. That is a completely different scenario. A high profile game will garner everyone’s attention and the chance to play for a championship would have been worth the risk.

Heck, I think McCaffery would have played in the Rose Bowl game if they would have won another game or two.

Since he played there before and had great success who wouldn’t want to play on the biggest stage for bowl games again?

Sitting out a bowl game to protect a big financial payday in the NFL is understandable. Like Y2K we kind of forget who played in many of these bowl games or sometimes why they are even played.

A NFL player only has a few years to earn a living so they might as well protect their bodies until the contract is signed. It would be nice to see these guys play for 10 years or better and succeed but nothing is guaranteed in life.

Appreciate 2017 as much as you can because before you know it we’ll be saying Happy New Year to 2018!