Goodbye and Good LUCK To Stanford Wide Receiver, Griff Whalen

Stanford just played the final game of its winning football season and the blogosphere is atwitter with predictions of Andrew Luck’s Heisman trophy chances and the pending NFL draft. 

Of course, we all wish the team’s star quarterback good LUCK. He’s modeled calm under fire, humility, and . You know, the kind we dream our nation's leaders would exhibit. 

But for us it isn’t about the hero, the frontman, the one everyone is clamoring to know. For us, it’s about the other guy: wide receiver, Griff Whalen.

We first met Griff three summers ago when Stanford nested him at our house for the month of July. The university, in its genius, knew it had to build good faith with local residents, so placing well-behaved, hard working role models in homes around the area seemed like a good idea. It was.

Conveniently, this also solved another problem. NCAA rules limit training during the summer, but colleges want to keep their athletes on a tight leash to prepare for the fall season. Voila! . 

In the past three years, we’ve watched Griff grow from a cautious sophomore to a confident senior. During that time, he’s become more than a summer resident, he’s become part of the family. 

I’m no pro at football. My kids say I care more about the “costumes” than the actual playing (not true, but who thought it was a good idea to have the team wear blood red against Notre Dame?). So I was surprised to learn Griff was not an obvious choice for wide receiver. Because he was considered too small to have a true impact, he wasn’t recruited like so many of his teammates. He was a walk-on candidate who earned a place at Stanford through his academic prowess and a place on the team through sheer force of will. 

At one game, I felt like a proud mother as Griff caught ball after ball. I beamed when a nearby fan said, “That Whalen might not look like a wide receiver, but his hands are like velcro!” 

Now, the fun is coming to an end. Stanford will lose its star quarter-back. Andrew Luck will lose his go-to wide receiver. And we will lose our “adopted” son as he moves beyond the nest to graduation and on to the rest of his life. 

The sports writers will say we’ve reached an “end of an era” and there is truth to this. But around our house, we’re not too worried. We still have sophomore Myles Muagututia staying with us in the summers. Like Griff, he too was a walk-on. And like Griff, we have no doubt he will give us reason to cheer in the years ahead. For now though, he might just feel a little like The Other Guy.