It’s not your decision. It’s their decision.
If the Capital One Orange Bowl proved anything, it’s that we’re going to have to review that lesson every time this happens now. This, of course, is the “to play or not to play” question that LSU’s Leonard Fournette and Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey amplified with their decisions to sit out bowl games this year.
So now that somehow applies to Michigan’s Jabrill Peppers, who was questioned for not playing in the 33-32 loss to No. 11 Florida State on Friday, and Jake Butt, who is being second-guessed for playing and suffering a serious knee injury in the loss.
We can run through the talking points from there. It’s a business decision that affects their NFL future. Bowl games are meaningless exhibition games with empty seats. Players should be allowed to skip if coaches do. Why would a player risk injury in one of those when they aren’t getting paid?
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Everybody mashes those together and forms an opinion. Mine? Unless there’s a compelling reason they should play in the bowl games because these games are a chance to represent the school one more time and football is a team sport even if some individuals stand out above the rest. And I’ve spent the entire bowl season debating this with best friends and high school teammates in some of the longest text chains of all times. Seriously, they woke me up this morning.
But again, I’m not Fournette, McCaffrey, Peppers or Butt, and I can’t understand what it’s like to be in his position at the college level.
It’s not my decision. It’s their decision.
Criticism of Peppers — who was ruled out shortly before the start of the game after suffering a hamstring injury Thursday — reached absurd levels. The first-team All-American and future first-round pick clearly made an effort to play in the game but was somehow lumped in with Fournette and McCaffrey, who made announcements they were sitting out.
The fact Peppers sat out wasn’t enough. It was a rush to find out why he wasn’t on the sideline until the camera revealed he was in the press box. Then, theories about his toughness, motives and NFL Draft stock started swirling. The conspiracy theories have to pile up until Peppers is the most-overrated player to ever step foot on a college football field. It’s absurd.
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It’s not enough that Peppers was in tears afterward, which inevitably will be turned into a Crying Jordan meme if it hasn’t already. You just had to question that decision even if the answer is as simple as he tweaked his hamstring in practice and did not have enough time to recover. He told you. Why would he lie?
That’s his decision to make, and he’s not the last one. We’re now going to do this every time a first-round talent is either injured or decides to sit out a bowl game.
It’s his decision, just like it was Butt’s decision to play in the game and risk an injury that unfortunately came in the first half. We might as well call this the “Jaylon Smith Effect” in honor of the Notre Dame linebacker who was injured in the Fiesta Bowl last season. Butt, however, will have to recover instead of prepare for the NFL Draft.
Oh, we’ll question the hell out of that, even if Butt already came out and tweeted he wouldn’t change a thing. We’ll search for the existential meaning of bowl games in general, even if the answer is simple as it’s one more chance to play with teammates you’ve spent three or four years with, for better or worse. That’s kind of the best thing about the sport for the players.
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Butt had the chance to play in a New Year’s Day Six Bowl against a big-time opponent, and he took advantage of it. You know who else did? Florida State’s Dalvin Cook and DeMarcus Walker, and you can’t say their dominant performances hurt their NFL Draft stock. Did it?
That’s their decision. Neither Peppers nor Butt should be questioned or second guessed at all. They can make that on their own, and the only people that need an explanation are the players and coaches on their team. It’s easy to tell somebody what to do without knowing everything that goes into that decision. You don’t think a coach with a NFL background like Jim Harbaugh isn’t going to help them?
Butt and his senior teammates went through a 12-13 record their first two seasons before Harbaugh’s arrival, and it was a chance to play in a New Year’s Day Six game. It might be a meaningless exhibition game to you, but it sure as hell didn’t look like a meaningless game to those players last night. That was the closest thing to a College Football Playoff semifinal you could find right up to the finish.
The injury is a setback, but Butt will still get a chance to play in the NFL. Butt could have left last year, by the way. His decision to play doesn’t change a thing.
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Peppers is in that boat now, and faces that tough decision. He could leave for the NFL and have his legacy as a Michigan player debated because he didn’t beat Ohio State, win a Big Ten title or play in a bowl game despite the fact he was clearly one of the best players in college football. Or he could stay at Michigan and risk injury next year. That goes with the territory of being a five-star recruit. Is that an easy decision?
Funny everybody else seems to want to make that for him. And Butt. And Fournette. And McCaffrey. And the next guy who skips out. And the next guy who gets hurt. The more that happens, the less we’ll care about these bowl games.
But don’t like act they don’t mean anything. Otherwise, fan bases wouldn’t get so passionate in the stands or on social media before, during and after the games. The winner brags on Facebook and Twitter. The loser, of course, gets that Crying Jordan meme. Or worse. Did you watch the West Virginia fan pull out the “Road House” one-liner on the Miami fan in the bathroom fight? That game clearly meant bragging rights to both fans.
That’s the best — and sometimes worst — part of the sport for the fans. It’s always about bragging rights, even in those so-called meaningless exhibition games. You think Florida State and Michigan fans treated that like a meaningless exhibition game last night? No, no they didn’t. They watched as we questioned players such as Peppers and Butt before, during and after for their decisions “to play or not to play” in one more game with their teammates. We’re going to do that all the time now, and it’s already a tired exercise.
We can ask questions and second guess all we want, but the answer is simple.
It’s not your decision. It’s their decision.
Let them make it and live with the consequences.
