Cal and Stanford - Stronger Together

As a student athlete from Cal-Berkeley I learned to dislike Stanford, but I am finding myself proud that we are working with our rivals as we navigate troubled waters together. I am sad about the news of the death of the Pac 8/10/12, and disagree with the motives that led to these changes. Not to overstate my access, but I still know some people at Cal and other universities, and everything I've heard throughout this process has started with "Cal and Stanford will be together, and..." ...the rest I care less and less about. Cal and Stanford are going to be navigating this process together. That makes me proud.

For context, I hated Stanford, but I also have friends, teammates, and clients who attend(ed) Stanford, and I can't pretend like I didn't hear on ESPN yesterday that Stanford is routinely ranked #1 in the country in terms of its combination of academics and athletics. I frequently trained in the off-season at Stanford's campus, and several of my proudest athletic moments came against Stanford. I hated Stanford because it was a worthy adversary. I've been to the weddings of Stanford teammates, and I've been punched in the face by Stanford alumni. I myself went to UC Berkeley, AND I went to Cal, and maybe only my fellow Cal alumni will understand the subtle contextual difference between using "UC Berkeley" and using "Cal," but either way we all hated Stanford. I battled with a lot of people from Stanford, and know that my wife, kids, and I can't wear red (not even their favorite red dresses) to any Cal game, because that's the Stanford red and people will chant at you… and yes, even though it's the same Niners red dress… but we like the Niners, and we don't like Stanford… and it's different… and it's complicated for 2 year old or 40 year old brains to understand sometimes… but it's real...

I disagree with a lot about Stanford. I also disagree with a lot about what the (people representing the) conferences are doing, I also disagree with a lot about Cal, I disagree with a lot about politics in America, I disagree with certain aspects of capitalism, and I also disagree with a lot about what my closest friends and family think about the world. But it's okay to disagree. Cal-Berkeley is public, it's routinely used as a symbol representing many things (some fair, some not), and it's got a strained relationship between its academics and athletics, both of which are exceptional. Stanford is private, it's been used as a symbol representing many (very different) things, and it might be the best school in the United States of America. And here we are: we're each others' brothers in this. Our old home is destroyed, and we're taking the rivalry to another place. We're both strong, and we're stronger together.