Neuheisel supports Bradford & Stoops
I wrote in the Wednesday Oklahoman about how CBS analyst Gary Danielson said Sam Bradford made a mistake in not turning pro last year and that Bob Stoops should have encouraged Bradford to leave OU.
But the next day on the Dan Patrick Show, the forum in which Danielson criticized Stoops, UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel defended the decision to return, even in the wake of Bradford’s injury.
“I don’t think you can ever look back,” Neuheisel said. In 2005, USC quarterback Matt “Leinart had a great experience when he came back to SC for a year. I think Bradford is still going to have a great senior season.
“I just think kids are looking at how much they enjoy college. Unless some catastrophic thing happens, Sam Bradford’s going to have an unbelievable NFL career. ”
Patrick asked Neuheisel what he would have told Bradford last January, had Neuheisel been the OU coach.
“Sam, I think you can have your cake and eat it too,” Neuheisel said. “I certainly don’t want to stand in your way if you feel the NFL’s calling. But I can tell you barring catastrophic injury, that’s going to be available to you as well. I think you can have it all. We’d love to have you back.”
The truth of the matter is coaches are supposed to support their programs. Their job is to produce quality football and quality young men. Ideally, a top NFL prospect has a strong home base in which to help him make such a major decision. And that’s exactly what happened with Bradford.
Now, with someone like tight end Jermaine Gresham, the system breaks down. Gresham, as has been well-documented, came from a less-stable environment. He basically was raised by a village in Ardmore and didn’t receive the home training someone like Bradford or Gerald McCoy did. Truth is, Bob Stoops’ responsibility is greater to someone like Gresham than someone like Bradford, even though the financial stakes are greater on Bradford’s case, since he would have been a higher draft pick.
Bradford was a guy who really couldn’t make a wrong decision, and even with injury Bradford is on a solid life course. But Gresham, who suffered a knee injury in August and will miss his entire senior season, likely erred in not going to the NFL. His draft status is much shakier now than Bradford’s, and Gresham probably cost himself some money. We know for sure he cost himself a year’s worth of money; money he can’t ever get back.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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It may indeed be true that this injury has hurt Gresham’s draft prospects, but it concerns me that all the talk about whether he (or Bradford, for that matter) made the right decision to return to OU for one more year before heading to the NFL centers entirely on how this will affect his short-term (and possibly long-term) financial means. Hey, I would not have begrudged either of them had they chosen to follow the money, but if they were going after something that was more important to them than money (another year in the college atmosphere, a chance to play for a national title — Peterson recently said his biggest regret from his college years is he didn’t win an NC; don’t think these things don’t matter anymore to players once they get to the pros) how can we call that a mistake, just because an unfortuitous injury may reduce the amount of money they make in their first couple years in the NFL (injury or no, both Gresham and Bradford are still on course to have tremendous NFL careers, barring a later more serious injury ending their respective careers prematurely).