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Sports take: Bradford's misfortune lesson for others

Oct. 23, 2009

By Jessica Goodlett
Reporter

Imagine spending your entire life dreaming about being a professional athlete. Day in and day out you practice to make this happen.

In elementary school, instead of playing four square with your classmates, you're chalking outlines of receivers on the handball court and working on your post-snap footwork.

You reach junior high. While everyone spends their days worrying about how their face looks, you spend your time mapping out trick plays and mastering that perfect pitch to the man in the backfield.

In high school the real work begins. The other guys are focusing on becoming prom king. You're on the field long after practice not only making sure that your passes are accurate and sharp, but that your form is flawless.

You're recruited to a top Division I school in the Big 12 Conference. After your sophomore year you win the Heisman Trophy. You're on the fast track to being a No. 1 draft pick in the NFL and you... turn it down.

Seriously?

Sounds a little familiar, doesn't it? The boy's name is Sam Bradford, and although he may not have spent his childhood like I portrayed, he was on the fast track to being a No. 1 draft pick. Instead, Bradford decided to stay at the University of Oklahoma for his junior year.

I believe he did this because he was championship hungry. After losing to Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators, I think the only thing Bradford saw was invincibility. He saw himself as an incoming junior with nothing but success ahead of him.

But then he faced Brigham Young in the first game of this season and suffered a sprained shoulder, which put him on the bench for the rest of the preconference games. He was then injured again in the Red River Rivalry against the University of Texas. He is now scheduled to undergo possible season-ending surgery. You think he's kicking himself yet?

The injuries that he sustained have trampled his hopes of being a No. 1 draft pick and possibly even a first-round pick. A healthy Bradford could have easily been both, but a surgically repaired Bradford might not be. He's damaged goods.

I feel that athletes should take the opportunity to play in the pros when they receive it. Some are worried about finishing their degree.

Here's the beauty of it: A degree will always be there and there's no age limit on when you can get one.

In Bradford's case, he was hungry for a national championship. He was bitter after losing to Florida. Sometimes you have to sacrifice something like a championship to get what you really want. Wasn't it your dream in the first place to play professionally?

I almost pity Bradford. I always dreamed of playing a sport professionally, and I think that it's pretty obvious that I wouldn't be writing this article if I had the skills to do it.

Bradford had the talent and the potential to grow into a successful NFL quarterback.

He could have been winning Super Bowls, but he traded that in for one ... ONE ... national championship. I'm not discrediting the BCS title, but when you compare it with all the amenities that come with NFL status, it kind of fails to measure up.

So here Bradford sits, with scholarship money that he doesn't get to pocket, on a team that no longer has the potential to win a national title, and an injury that may very well put him out for the season and damage his draft eligibility.

Was it worth it?

Jessica Goodlett is a senior journalism major from San Diego.

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