Michael Perez/Associated PressIf you want to make the entire football world hate you, here's a step-by-step guide:
Step 1. Have a lackluster season, the latest in a disappointing career.
Step 2. Sign an eight-figure contract.
Step 3. Complain about having to fight to keep your job before your bonus check even direct deposits.
Come to think of it, that's a great way to make anyone in any profession hate you.
Sam Bradford stuffed his reputation down a garbage disposal over the last three weeks, then poured some kerosene down the drain, lit a match and blew up the neighborhood plumbing system. The oft-injured journeyman with a 25-37-1 career record demanded a trade after the Eagles moved up in the draft to select rookie challenger/likely replacement Carson Wentz, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.
Bradford held out of OTAs for a week. There were retirement whispers. At one point, Bradford reportedly stopped answering his phone when Eagles coach Doug Pederson called him:
Will Brinson @WillBrinsonAccording to Sal Pal on ESPN, Sam Bradford isn’t answering phone calls from Doug Pederson right now.
Less than two months after signing a two-year contract worth $22 million guaranteed, Bradford did everything short of sawing his arm off to get away from Philadelphia.
And now Bradford is back. He returned Monday with a graciously rescinded trade demand and a white-hankie-on-a-stick of an official statement (via ESPN's Adam Schefter):
I'm excited to be back on the field today with my teammates and coaches. The business-side of football is sometimes a necessary consideration. My attention and efforts are focused on the participation in and preparation for a championship season: I am committed to my teammates and the Eagles organization for nothing less.
Bradford's tail is not tucked between his legs. It's detached, Eeyore-style. Returning was Bradford's only sensible option, but returning so soon actually makes him look worse. If he held out until August, he would at least look like a man of conviction—foolish conviction, but still conviction. Now, he just looks like the guy who threw a tantrum and quit during a staff meeting trying to sneak back from lunch as if nothing had happened.
Bradford doesn't just have a public-perception problem. He has an NFL-perception problem. Bradford's professionalism was one of his biggest calling cards as the paper yellowed and the type faded on the old scouting reports that made him the first overall pick in the 2010 draft. You would be surprised at how many people around the league pointed back to Bradford's college reputation during discussions of last year's Eagles-Rams trade as if those evaluations were fresh.
Howie Roseman, Carson Wentz, Jeffrey Lurie and Doug Pederson: four numbers Sam Bradford must unblock on his smartphone.RICH SCHULTZ/Associated Press/Associated PressThe Eagles weren't the only team that still saw superstar potential in Bradford, so long as that talent came with the dedication and commitment to overcome his many injuries, make up for lost seasons and reclaim what ACL tears and ineffective systems had taken from him.
Bradford checked off the "model employee" box on most scouting reports, and that's one of the few attributes that gets stronger, not weaker, as a quarterback ages.
Talent, experience and intangibles might make a quarterback worth $35 million over two years in the current market. But throw those intangibles into question, and we are suddenly in Robert Griffin III territory. That's what Bradford has done to his marketability in the last three weeks, just as he was trying to test the open market for the first time in his career.
The situation only gets worse when a quarterback tumbles toward his 30s. Journeymen-for-hire of the Josh McCown variety are selected specifically for their ability to work alongside the likes of Wentz. Bradford just closed off a potential avenue toward remaining in the NFL until he's 40. Maybe that's not what he wants, but it's not something to casually throw away.
Maybe Bradford got some bad advice in the last month. Agent Tom Condon may have believed that a trade to the Broncos or 49ers was in the bag and pushed his client into an untenable situation. No matter whether that's the case, Bradford needs better advice to extract himself from his current predicament.
If Bradford wants to restore his reputation, and more importantly his marketability/trade value, he needs to follow the following five steps:
1. Own the last three weeks: Bradford should not try to play off the trade request and holdout as some kind of "misunderstanding," and he cannot let the perception that this was an extended hissy-fit linger.
The "business side of football" part of Bradford's official statement is the first step toward setting the proper tone and spinning his trade demands in the best possible way. He saw the Eagles trade up for Wentz and wanted a chance to compete elsewhere. When a draft-day trade failed to materialize, he held out for a few days as leverage to force a trade.
But now he's here, he hasn't missed much and he's eager to prove what sort of competitor he really is and always has been.
In other words, it was all just business, nothing petulant.
2. Extend the olive branch to Wentz: Wentz can be Bradford's greatest advocate in the weeks to come. If Wentz raves about Bradford's advice and guidance and speaks fondly about the atmosphere in the meeting room, it will mean more than anything Bradford or his coaches can say on his behalf.
Bradford has a lot of 'splaining to do in the upcoming weeks: to Pederson and the coaches, to teammates, to owner Jeffrey Lurie and just about everyone at the NovaCare Complex. But Bradford must prove himself as both a competitor and mentor to Wentz, a fairly common dual role for a veteran-journeyman quarterback.
If the quarterback competition in Philly devolves into Bradford vs. Wentz: Dawn of Controversy, the blame for any unnecessary intrigue will fall on the guy who kicked the Wentz era off with a tantrum.
Chuck Burton/Associated Press3. Squelch the retirement talk (hard!): Bradford considered retirement after tearing his ACL for a second time in August 2014, according to Mike Sielski of the Philadelphia Inquirer. However, Oklahoma assistant coach Josh Heupel talked him out of it, and Bradford rehabbed the knee before the Eagles trade. The recent retirement talk was just speculation and scuttlebutt, but there's just a little too much retirement talk around Bradford.
No one would blame a player who suffered as many injuries (and has as much money in the bank) as Bradford if he chose to retire. But no one really wants to trade for or sign a player who sounds like he is one reversal of fortune away from quitting, either.
If Bradford really plans to claw and scratch to keep pursuing his NFL career, he must make that clear by denouncing the recent retirement rumors as vehemently as possible.
4. Follow the Alex Smith template: Alex Smith should be Bradford's role model for how to handle the 2016 season. Like Bradford, Smith was a first overall pick. Like Bradford, Smith spent five years in career limbo. Just as Smith appeared to establish himself as an effective starter, his organization became enamored with Colin Kaepernick, just as the Eagles now covet Wentz.
Smith did not give way to Kaepernick without a fight in 2012, but it was an on-field battle—not a war of trade demands and holdouts. Smith was in demand after the 2012 season, and the Chiefs dealt a bunch of draft picks to acquire him. After signing a four-year, $68 million contract extension, Smith has embarked on a second career as a sturdy, playoff-caliber game manager.
Smith represents the best-case scenario for Bradford, who must prove he can hold off Wentz for a few weeks or months to start the season. If he can do that, quarterback-hungry suitors will emerge for a veteran with moxie. If he cannot hold off Wentz, well, nothing else really matters, does it?
5. Adopt an attitude of gratitude. Bradford refused to allow the Rams to rework the six-year, $86 million contract he signed in the wacky days before the rookie salary cap, per Andrew Brandt of The MMQB, despite the fact that he missed two full seasons with ACL injuries. Bradford reportedly turned down a four-year, $72 million extension from the Eagles last autumn, according to 94WIP's Howard Eskin (via CBS Philly's Ray Boyd).
Now, he's shown that $22 million in guaranteed money doesn't buy enough loyalty to get you to Mother's Day without intrigue.
Jim Rogash/Getty ImagesYou can claim to be #blessed as often as you like, but when your actions make you look like the George Clooney character from Money Monster, the guys who set the budgets and write the checks will notice.
If all of the financial hardball of recent years is Condon's doing, Bradford must make it clear that Condon works for him, not vice versa, and that he will no longer let money be an obstacle to his competitive goals. At the very least, Bradford must handle himself more like a man who knows how lucky he is to still command eight-figure salaries, not a guy on an endless redshirt scholarship.
Bradford went from gallant to goofus in just a few weeks. It will take months or years to undo the damage. A winning season will turn everything that happened since the Wentz trade into a footnote. But unless Bradford gets control of his story and his reputation, a winning season will be almost impossible, because no one will be eager to give him the chance to have one.
Mike Tanier covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeTanier.
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