CBS’ Danielson criticizes Stoops for allowing Bradford to come back this season
CBS analyst Gary Danielson
In a CBS conference call promoting its SEC telecasts on Thursday, analyst Gary Danielson took a shot at OU coach Bob Stoops for allowing Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Sam Bradford to return for his junior season. Bradford suffered a shoulder injury in the Sooners’ 14-13 loss to BYU in the season opener.
“I personally wish, and I know it wouldn’t happen and I almost feel funny saying it because I know Bob Stoops and he cares about his players, I really wish Bob Stoops would have said to Sam Bradford, ‘I’m sorry. I can’t let you play for my team this year. I can’t risk $70 million knowing that some guard will turn a linebacker loose and blow your arm and knee.’ I thought Sam should have been in the NFL.”
Danielson, who is in his fourth season of SEC telecasts, said he made similar comments on the air and to coach Les Miles when star defensive lineman Glenn Dorsey returned to LSU instead of going pro.
Danielson, who said he expects Colt McCoy, Tim Tebow or Bradford to win the Heisman Trophy, said he hates discussing the competition early in the season.
“I wish they wouldn’t even bring up Heisman until Week 10 or something like that. It’s just ridiculous. I gave up my vote long ago. I got mad when Peyton Manning didn’t win, and it was lobbied on air and Charles Woodson won it. I thought that was a crime that year. Not that he wasn’t a good player, but I thought that Manning deserved it.
“Last year’s voting was an embarrassment. Tim Tebow was the returning Heisman Trophy winner and out of 904 votes, 154 didn’t have him as first, second or third. Clearly people we’re trying to make their vote count twice by not voting for him and he lost by 151 votes. The whole thing is a scam.”
Danielson and former Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer, a new analyst for the CBS College Sports Network, said the SEC is well above the Big 12 in overall talent.
Danielson: “I actually don’t think there is any question, really. The SEC has dominated right now if you just look at their success with the national championships. This is just a snapshot and it changes. … If any SEC team went undefeated — like LSU, Alabama, Ole Miss or Florida or anybody else that could do it — they would be the No. 1 seed for the BCS and that’s because of the short history of what’s happened with the SEC and how they’ve finished off these national championship games.”
Fullmer: “You have to look at the conferences and the divisions from top to bottom and certainly the Big 12 can play with anybody at the top of the league, but the bottom half of the Southeastern Conference can certainly impact what happens in the SEC and impact from a national standpoint by upsetting people. From top to bottom, I think the Southeastern Conference is the best league.”
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Comments
Wonder what kind of tea Danielson is sipping?
Yes the SEC is a good conference and the Big 12 is also but
Big 12 matches up real well w SEC.
Defense of SEC probably little stronger but offenses of SEC are inferior to Big 12.
OSU dismantled Georgia last week from a defensive standpoint so I see that area of football in big 12 improving.
Bradford is a higly intelligent young man,he knows what he is doing and he made right decision coming back,a boy w a 4 point average in his school work certainly knows what is best for him and so does Bob Stoops.
Stoops is a class act and would never do anything but wish Bradford the best if he had decided to go pro.
Bradford w a straight A average in finance got to believe knows more what he is doing than a “Hack” reporter on TV.
Bradford is a cinch to do well in finance after his graduation @ OU but he is no cinch in Pro football.
Says “Don Brewington”: “Bradford is a cinch to do well in finance after his graduation @ OU but he is no cinch in Pro football.”
You could “do well” in finance for a lifetime and there’s a 99.999% chance you will not make as much $$$ as a first round pick gets JUST AS A SIGNING BONUS – without even having to play a single down. You don’t have to “make it” – you only have to put your John Hancock next to the X.
Why not go pro, then use some of that $XX,XXX,XXX to come back and finish your degree if it means that much to you. That’s my take. Bradford seems like a good kid. And I think that’s the columnist’s point – he’s just a kid. At 21 or 22, a person doesn’t understand the RARE opportunities life gives us like someone who has worked for 30 years. Someone with life experience should have (and perhaps someone did try – probably his parents) to encourage him to make the smart decision.
Good luck Sam. Keep your head up.
Mr. Danielson and Coach Fulmer:
Years ago football broadcast personalities made the game even more fun to watch and hear. They made the matchups exciting, they described the attributes of both teams in imaginative ways and whoever won was just slightly better than the team that didn’t win. They in short brought value to the game itself and to the young men playing.
Your comments do neither. They are critical, unfounded by any kind of substantiated research, and divide the world of college football. For what? What benefit are you bringing? Do you think most of us fans want to hear your anlaysis? Frankly we don’t. We would like to hear Coach Fulmer tell us something about Football we don’t know or what a coach may be thinking in a critical game situation. A story or two on a young man who has shown courage and bravery.
I have a simple challenge to you Mr. Danielson; see what you can do to make the game better, more fun to watch and encourages young men and future players. As for your criticisms, caustic descriptions and analysis is lazy boring reporting please leave it at home. We are all worn out listening to stuff like that from you and every other broadcaster.
Best regards. Chuck Tollefsen, Tulsa Oklahoma.
Bill Parcells tells Stoops that Bradford needs to come back for another year to get bigger and stronger. Whose opinion would you choose to take, Danielson or Parcells.
Danielson is saying money is everything. But once you leave college, that one special year of your life is gone and void. If you happen not to make it another 4 or 5 months, or you live forever, it really doesn’t make a difference. What matters is that you live each day and cherish your opportunity. Don’t turn away the lottery, but don’t let money rule your life either. In the 40 or 60 years you may have left, there will only be a few years in college and nothing compares.
[...] certainly isn’t going to try to talk him out of it this time, after being blasted by CBS’ Gary Danielson earlier this month for convincing Bradford to pass up a shot at going No. 1 to the Lions last April [...]
This entire thing by Danielson is absolutely disgusting. “How dare Bradford go back to school!”
Really? So after repeatedly bashing many a college player for leaving early to go to the NFL, now we’re going to take shots at kids who come back? I hope this guy gets a roundhouse kick to the face for saying this. It’s unbelievable for him to say that Bradford made a bad decision to come back.
I wish there were stronger words in the English language for me to describe the hatred I have for this man and his comments. (and this coming from a Nebraska fan who dislikes everything Oklahoma)
[...] what has to be his most trying season leading the Sooners. The cacophony of idiot bloggers , TV analysts , and talking heads wondering how he could let his team sink to such lows finally had grown too [...]
Wow, a CBS guy that prefers the SEC. Big surprise!