Thank you, Sam
When I was in elementary school my after-school time was spent tossing a football around with neighborhood kids, thinking of Saturday afternoons at a place called Owen Field and fantasizing about one day being a Sooner.
Reality for me struck sometime around sixth grade. But, for a young man named Sam Bradford, those dreams became reality.
The past two seasons we have seen Bradford guide the Oklahoma Sooners to championship games and himself to the Heisman trophy. And, without fail, Bradford has proven that good guys don’t always finish last. He’s demonstrated that success can come fairly and squarely to those whose commitment to good character is ever bit as important as commitment to winning.
I don’t know if Bradford is the best quarterback to ever have played at OU. That’s sort of like saying Mom’s chicken and dumplings were better than her German chocolate cake. Please don’t make me make that choice. I wouldn’t know how to go about it, anyway.
But, there has been no player who has done more to exemplify character, especially when faced with the adversity that the Sooners have faced this year (principally as a result of their star quarterback’s season-ending shoulder injury). He has remained positive, but at the same time, human. At his press conference Monday, he announced he will have surgery this week and go to the NFL next spring. As he began making his remarks a host of fellow teammates filed in behind him to show their support for their leader.
“To make this decision and realize I’ve probably played the last game at Oklahoma….it’s really tough,” Bradford said.
But then, he said he looked forward to the challenge presented by rehabilitation. And the opportunity to prove to all that he will be as good a quarterback as he was before his injury.
There is no melodramatic Tebow here. Sam is just a good guy. Without fail, every Sooner fan knows it and appreciates it.
So, while his injury may have cut Sam short of proving he is the best Sooner quarterback of all time, let’s not ignore the fact that he is the most liked, most popular and most worthy. And he has earned it.
— Mike