Jake Locker, QB of the University of Washington's resurgent Husky football team, has apparently decided to stay for his Senior season, a decision that will likely cost him millions of dollars due to the NFL rookie salary cap scheduled to be implemented in 2011.
I don't watch the NFL any more if it's avoidable, for reasons made clear concerning their decision to segue into political correctness as set forward in several places in my blog already. And the NFL isn't the point of this post: Jake Locker is.
In an era where cynicism rules the day, Jake Locker is one of the very best at his craft, which is guiding the offense of a football team down the field to a score.
He is gifted, intelligent, unflappable, mature, daring, laser-armed and courageous on so many levels. He is willing to take a physical beating to get the job done, and he will put himself into harm's way to achieve success for his team; qualities of leadership that are to be admired at every level (they could, for example, be of great use in the White House right now)
He is also, obviously, loyal. And loyalty is that rarest of commodities today anywhere, let alone in the field of professional athletics.
Jake Locker in the middle of crushing 19th Ranked Cal a few days ago.
And that is why, while I admire his decision, I believe it to be the wrong one.
Some estimates are that because of the soon-to-be-imposed salary cap, Jake is walking away from as much as five million dollars.
As a former Husky and an abysmal, non-talented walk on at that program in the mid 70's, I can tell you now, there is nothing to risk millions of dollars to stay there for.
I bear the UW no ill-will. But my concern is not over them, because, after all, they are yet another greedy state institution, shafting the kids with outrageous tuition and fee hikes that would make Al Capone blush with envy.
I was well-educated there, although the quality of education I received at Eastern was, on the whole, far superior in terms of class size and instruction (Not once did I get taught by anything but a Ph.D. at Eastern, while classes run by grad students were the rule as opposed to the exception at the Dub... and Geology 101 with 700 students in my class (Kane hall was the venue) is legendary for me not knowing the difference between a volcano and a barbeque when it was over, my 3.2 grade notwithstanding.)
And who can argue that for a man to walk away from the millions he would receive just for signing a document, thereby setting himself up for life, could only be doing so out of a sense of commitment and loyalty to this institution that can only be admired as the highest level of sacrifice for an honor that we can only aspire to from afar, like a light too bright... a light too painful to even take a glimpse of... a light that will shine not unlike, in it's own way, that of Pat Tillman; a young man who also turned down millions for another calling... a calling that led to his tragic death in service to this country.
I wish Jake Locker nothing but the greatest success. But sidelines and sports talk shows are replete with clipboard-carrying Heisman winners. Few ever match the success they achieved at the college level. Few with a pie-plate sized National Championship ring, should such good fortune befall the Huskies, ever reach those heights again.
Football at this level is a business. And leaving now is what makes the most business sense.
I hope your decision to stay will be the right one, Jake. I hope you succeed in all your endeavors. And I hope you don't, ultimately, wind up regretting your altruism.
Time will tell, and I can't say I don't relish the viewing and the coming up there to watch you play... because I do. But I also hope beyond hope that your decision doesn't lead to you appearing on one of those interminable ESPN "if only" specials where they talk about what "might have been," in the face of what actually was.
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