When Sam Bradford went down with a shoulder injury in Oklahoma’s season opener against BYU, many observers felt he should call it a season and begin rehabbing with an eye on the 2010 NFL draft.
Bradford didn’t, of course, and subsequently reinjured the shoulder a little over a month later against Texas, knocking him out for the rest of the regular season.
Not only does Bradford have no regrets about returning for another season in Norman — there was talk that he would likely have been the No. 1 overall pick of the 2009 draft if he left following the 2008 season — he has no regrets about attempting a comeback from the first injury. In fact, the former Heisman Trophy winner said he couldn’t have lived with himself if he hadn’t at least attempted to return from the injury to the throwing shoulder.
“I think if I wouldn’t have tried to come back, there’s no way I could have lived with that decision,” he said. “Everyone I talked to at the time said that I could come back and play. No one thought I needed surgery after the first injury. So I don’t think I made the wrong decision.”
Not that Bradford needs it, but the fact that he’s still being considered as the likely No. 1 pick by at least one observer validates that twice coming back — for another season and from the injury — was the right decision because it was Bradford’s decision to make.
His decision, not a pundit’s or a fan’s or anyone else’s.
If he’s cool with it, that should be good enough for everybody else. Should be.
Or, as Bradford himself put it: “I know a lot of people say that [he hurt his financial future]. But the fact that I got hurt doesn’t change who I am. It doesn’t change my work ethic.”
Some NFL team is going to get a helluva representative for their team, and a pretty damn good quarterback to boot.
Sam Bradford is gorgeous.
Sam sure makes everyone out there who criticized him for not coming out look like a bunch of jackasses. He’s still gonna be a top 5 pick and he comes across as a great competitor and not some “me, me, me” pinhead.