I walk into Shayne Skov’s room to find the 6’3”, 243-pound Stanford MS&E junior sitting on his plush couch in the living room. He’s smiling, despite his season-ending knee injury earlier this year. His love for football is apparent: even when he’s supposed to be working, he’s playing the sport, albeit through a remote control. He hits the pause button on the NCAA game to chat it up.
SL: Give us the basics. Who you are, where you’re from and what you’re doing here at Stanford.
SS: I was born in San Francisco, moved to Mexico at the age of 11, came back here for high school, then went to high school in Oakland, and finally boarding school in New York. I’m a junior football player (linebacker #11), MS&E major. I’m fluent in English and Spanish. 21.
SL: I hear you had quite the unique upbringing.
SS: My dad was a quirky guy — tough at times. My mom was a firefighter for a while. My parents decided to do something different, so we uprooted and went to Mexico. My dad always taught us to be confident in ourselves and just be who we wanted to be in life. He would play pranks and things would end up being life lessons on us.
SL: What kind of pranks?
SS: My dad used to wear a pair of Ugg boots around the house to stay warm, and I’d always give him a hard time about it. When I was a freshman in high school, he said he would give me $200 to wear them at school for the entire day with the fluff rolled out. I wasn’t allowed to explain to anyone why I was doing it. I got tossed into the bushes by the seniors.
SL: What was the lesson there?
SS: He was trying to reach me to comfortable in my own skin. Things like that have made me and my brother very unique and open-minded people.
SL: Speaking of your brother [Patrick Skov], how did he get here?
SS: He ended up going to a different high school. Until Stanford, we hadn’t gone to the same school since middle school. As a football recruit, he could have gone to much better places, but I guess he decided to come here. He likes to be back in the Bay Area where a lot of his family is… and I like to think that he came out here in part to be with me – but you’ll never get that out of him.
SL: Most people will look at you and probably see an athlete – but there’s got to be more to you than that. What’s something about you that people normally wouldn’t know? What are your interests besides football?
SS: I’m a huge jokester. I’m just a goofy-natured guy. I can be loud so people think I’m arrogant, but I just like to have a good time and make other people laugh.
I play a lot of video games. I like to listen to a lot of music. I listen to just about every genre of music known to man, actually – including country. Country, hip hop, old school R&B, electronic dance music, metal….
SL: Thoughts on Justin Bieber?
SS: I think he’s successfully scammed thousands of pre-pubescent girls. He’s somehow convinced every girl under the age of 14 that he actually loves them.
SL: What’s it like during the season? How and when do you find personal time for yourself and keep your head on straight?
SS: Just trying to find a balance is important. I’d probably say the time that I should be doing homework is when I’m probably just kicking back and relaxing with my buddies (laughs). Life can be stressful, so being able to take just 30 to 45 minutes to just sit and unwind and just recollect on what’s been going on in your life – it’s a very cleansing and very relieving experience. It’s almost my way of meditating.
SL: Speaking of football, tell us about your signature game look.
SS: Football is such an aggressive sport and I play a position that puts a premium on being aggressive. My whole get-up is just a representation of that. I came up with it myself. It’s something I do while I’m in the season. When the season ends, it goes away and I cut my mohawk. All of that embodies the way I play the game.
SL: Plans for the next few years?
SS: I’m definitely going to graduate—probably ahead of schedule. I hope to play in the NFL; that’s any athlete’s dream to play professionally. I’m not going put all my eggs in that basket, but it’s definitely always been a dream of mine as a kid. But for now, I’m just gonna enjoy my time here at Stanford.
SL: What about your MS&E major?
SS: I don’t know yet. Stanford doesn’t have an undergraduate business major; MS&E is probably the closest thing to it. It does give a wide array of options and it requires more quantitative skills/applied sciences. If not the NFL, I can go in the direction of a more managerial/business-related route.