It’s been almost a month since the last college football game has been played. In college, bowl games only come once a year, and it’s a great chance to represent your school and gain recognition as an athlete. With my father being a quarterback at Oklahoma from 1998-1991, he always tells me stories about when he went to the Gator Bowl, and it sounds like a fun time for the whole team. However, last season, some players decided to skip their bowl games and start to prepare for the NFL scouting combine which is particularly selfish. If it was up to me, no one would be allowed to opt out of their bowl game and here’s why:
You’re cheating your teammates
Being on a team is a commitment. It’s a commitment to show up every day, on time and in uniform. You’re out there with your brothers, working and pushing each other and getting the best out of everyone. When game time comes around and you decide you’ll skip the bowl game, you’re letting all that work you put in to get there to waste, and you’re letting all the teammates, who pushed you and made you better, down. You’re showing that you don’t care about them and that it’s all about me and my future. There’s no I in team.
You’re cheating the school
Not only are you letting the team down, but you’re let down the school, the coaching staff and everyone who invested time in you to make you a better player. Whenever coaches offer scholarships, they decide to pay for the rest of your education. It should work where they give you a scholarship, pay for everything and in return, you’re supposed to win games and do everything you can to make a better athletic program. When athletes decide to skip games, it’s a slap in the face to the university, and it’s ultimately a wasted scholarship.
You aren’t reaching your full potential as a player
Although it can be argued that if you aren’t playing for a national championship, then why even bother playing in a bowl game? Well every game, no matter who or where your’ playing is significant. You play to better yourself for the next level of Football. Being a part of Legacy’s football team, I’ve learned every game matters. There is no game that is more important than the next. Same thing goes for college, every game is important, even if it’s not for the national championship.
Football is just a game and you can’t play it forever. Eventually, there’s a time in every player’s career where they have to retire. So if you really love the sport, and know that it’ll come to an end one day, why would you want to miss a game?
