Sam Bradford blew it.
Too bad. I like him a lot. He’s one of the true great guys I’ve met in the game. Along with fellow quarterbacks Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow, Bradford renews your faith in the college football hero.
But returning for his junior year after winning the Heisman Trophy and lifting Oklahoma to the BCS championship game was terribly foolhardy. Wednesday’s surgery on a throwing shoulder he injured twice this season could cripple his pro football future.
“It’s a classic case,” Boulder-based agent Jack Mills said. “A classic worst case.”
Money — I repeat, money — is not the main reason. And we’re talking significant coin here. Everyone from Cleveland’s then-general manager Phil Savage to ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr. said the 6-foot-4, 223-pound Bradford would have battled Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford for the No. 1 pick in the draft.
“I’d say (Bradford) was probably a little more accurate,” Savage told me Wednesday. “He doesn’t have the arm strength as Stafford. Stafford has a really big arm. And he’s not as sturdy in terms of his body build. But his instincts, the way he kept plays alive . . . His accuracy was the biggest thing.”
Stafford signed with Detroit as the No. 1 pick for $41.7 million guaranteed. Bradford said he’ll enter this spring’s draft, but how far he falls is anyone’s guess. Kiper had Bradford No. 1 on his preseason Big Board and has him No. 5 now. Last spring’s No. 5 pick, USC quarterback Mark Sanchez, signed with the Jets for $28 million.
“Someone making the calls for an NFL team has to be able to say, ‘He can be what he was last season,’ ” Kiper wrote on . “We might not know that until the combine or after the combine.”
The problem is Bradford won’t throw at the combine in late February. He has a five- to six-month rehab, which takes us to April. The draft starts April 22. He’ll have to thrill the plethora of scouts who will descend on Norman, Okla., to see his campus workouts. Again, that will be a total mystery.
“What I’m hearing is it’s going to be mainly based on the medical opinions that come out, that are available right prior to the draft,” Mills said. “Everyone would love to see a guy come out and play again before they have to make that decision. But they’re not going to be able to do that.”
Say Bradford’s shoulder doesn’t recover enough to show he’s still the player who led the nation last season with 50 touchdown passes and a 180.84 efficiency rating. Say he drops to No. 10 or further. Texas Tech receiver Michael Crabtree signed with San Francisco at that spot for $17 million. No. 15 Brian Cushing made $10.435 million.
That’s a potential loss of more than $30 million. Bradford can make up for that with a lucrative second contract. That’s the key in the NFL anyway. Many rookies get loads of cash, then find themselves with nothing but nice cars and no pro contract in three years.
But if these injuries make his shoulder brittle and he becomes a case for injured reserve every time he drops back to pass, his once- promising career could be as short-lived as Oklahoma’s national title hopes this season.
Here’s what underclassmen projected in the top 10 in the draft must look at: It’s not just the money. Who surrounds them? Bradford came back for all the right reasons. He loves college football. He wanted a chance for a national title. He’s on pace for his degree. Maybe the NFL isn’t a big deal.
However, he lost four starters off his offensive line, plus his two top wideouts in Malcolm Kelly and Juaquin Iglesias. They weren’t even going to win the Big 12 South.
Then Jermaine Gresham, Kiper’s top tight end in this spring’s draft, went down for the season before the opener with torn knee cartilage. Bradford became a sitting duck behind a line that didn’t improve fast enough to protect him.
“He’s almost in the position where he might be better off if he comes back for his senior season,” Kiper wrote.
That’s doubtful. Bradford will lose the left side of his line and likely Gresham, and then get his degree in December. I’m pulling for him. We all should. I’m not worried about him paying off his future Visa bills. He’ll make plenty.
But the money he will earn, however less than $42 million, won’t make up for the disappointment of a pro career that never takes flight because of a faulty wing.
The skinny on Leach’s comments
Maybe Mike Leach, in his obsession with pirates, never saw any of his beloved buccaneers with portly women. Maybe he was trying to improve the physiques of the Texas Tech coeds. Or maybe Leach was just being an insensitive lout.
Whatever, his comment after his Red Raiders’ 52-30 upset loss to visiting Texas A&M on Saturday was uglier than their defense.
“As coaches, we failed to make our coaching points more compelling than (the players’) fat little girlfriends,” Leach said after the game. “Fat little girlfriends have some obvious advantages. For one thing, their fat little girlfriends are telling them what they want to hear, which is how great you are and how easy it’s going to be.”
On Monday, Leach wouldn’t apologize. Then he piled on.
“As coaches, we have to solve our failure on reaching them, and the players have to listen,” he said. “I’m willing to go to fairly amazing lengths to try to make that happen. I don’t know if I’ll be successful this week or not, but I am going to try, and there will be some people inconvenienced.
“And if that happens to be their fat little girlfriends, too bad.”
Texas Tech hosts Kansas, a 6 1/2-point underdog.
John Henderson, The Denver Post
