Stanford star running back Bryce Love was unable to be in attendance for Pac-12 media day in Los Angeles this week, and one writer is criticizing him and his school over the absence.
Conferences across America are hosting media days as their annual way to promote the upcoming college football season. The media days are good opportunities for reporters to get to know the conference’s coaches and players. They lead to stories from media outlets (like this one) and help fans get excited about the year. Typically a program’s head coach and at least one veteran player will show up to represent the school and answer questions from reporters.
As a Heisman Trophy candidate, Love was the obvious choice to attend from Stanford, but he was unable to make the trip due to a rigorous summer school schedule, so he took questions via videochat from Skype instead.
“Me, personally, I really wanted to be there to represent the university,” Love said. “But I decided I just wasn’t able to make it happen this year. Based on other commitments, trying to graduate in December required me to take more classes over the summer.”
On Thursday, respected CBS Sports college football reporter Dennis Dodd wrote about the matter and said Love’s absence “set a dangerous precedent.”
“But his absence does set a dangerous precedent. This is going to give every star player an excuse to Skype in,” Dodd wrote.
He also said how the absence could impact the Heisman.
“Let’s just say Stanford forfeited a bit of a leverage to protest if Love doesn’t win the Heisman,” said Dodd.
C’mon, Dennis. This is one player, one time, who missed a media day — and for good reasons. This is not the end of the world, nor is it a dangerous precedent. This is a player reminding everyone that he is a student just as much as an athlete, and that should be respected.
