Damn Stanford.  $600 down the drain.

In my experience in life, people I have known who graduated from Stanford just think too hard.  They are all smart, folks like election lawyers Chuck Bell, Dana Reed.  But they just think too hard.  And that is not necessarily a good thing.

I grew up in the Bay Area.  My dad, who just had a high school education, had once hoped I’d go to Stanford.  He used to take me to Stanford football games.  I ended up gladly at USC, because I can think, but I do not think too hard.  Though I did get admitted to Stanford Law School one summer for a very successful course in civil rights litigation which actually helped me in later life.

Nevertheless, the Stanford penchant for thinking too hard really nailed me and my 84 year old father in law yesterday, when freshman tailback Anthony Wilkerson, who was on his way to a 23 yard touchdown run against Arizona State in the last minute and a half of the game slid down untouched on the four yard line, thus essentially ending the game without that score.

Stanford’s quarterback then took a couple of knees, and they won the game 17-13.  That’s nice.  But the win was just by 4 points.  The point spread in Las Vegas was -4 1/2 points.  We lost our legal bet because Wilkerson intentionally did not score that touchdown!!!

There isn’t much comment today about it in the mainstream press but I assure you the college football gambling blogs are going insane!

Why did Wilkerson slide to his butt before he could have easily pranced into the end zone and won my bet?  It wasn’t about "sportsmanship."  This college football year there has been a lot of talk about "sportsmanship."  Ohio State, my wife’s team, intentionally gave up a last second scoring opportunity in a game a few weeks ago in the name of "sportsmanship."  But at the time they had already beaten the Las Vegas spread!!!

Here is what Wilkerson told the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday "Man, a touchdown would have been nice…but the coach told us to slide and kill the clock" if the running backs broke free.  Stanford would have led 24-13 but it still would have been remotely possible for ASU to tie or pull the game out with two quick touchdowns in the last minute and a half, reasoned Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh.  In other words, Harbaugh over-thought the situation.  Typical Stanford.

Remotely possible that ASU could score two touchdowns in 90 seconds?  Yeah, and it was also remotely possible that Chelene Nightingale, the American Independent Party’s candidate for Governor of California in the last election, could have won her election.  (She got around 1.4% of the vote.)

USC’s football doldrums have caused me to venture forth this season, however, I am never going to bet on Stanford again, and that surely is not thinking too hard.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 14th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.