Sam Bradford Could Earn $50 Million Based On His...Potential—Huh?

Sam Bradford was the No. 1 pick in the 2010 NFL Draft by the St. Louis Rams. He is now entitled to guaranteed monies in the neighborhood of $45+ million—more than Matthew Stafford received last season from the Detroit Lions as their No. 1 pick.

My first question is, why?

Bradford sustained an injury in the first game of the 2009 college football season and, basically, missed the year.  Yet, he's guaranteed to make $45+ million as a pro player?...Wow, that's a nice gig if you can get it.

First of all, I don't blame Sam Bradford for taking the money, but I can understand a proven veteran player who will feel upset as a result. Bradford may be full of potential but, as my mother always said, "potential means you ain't done squat, yet."

Bradford will be a rookie on a team that is in rebuild mode but commanding that kind of a price tag on your skills means that your learning curve just got shorter. No matter what state the Rams are in at this time, Bradford will be looked upon as the savior and, as such, will be expected to produce big results  within the next season or two.

Is that fair to Bradford? No, but it comes with the job and the money. Just ask Reggie Bush how hefty his burden was coming into New Orleans after the tragedy of Katrina. Or, better still (and a little less dramatic), ask Matthew Stafford what he's expected to do in season two with the Lions—they expect better than eight wins in 2010.

No excuses. 

However, if there were a more reasonable system in place for paying the unproven rookie, players like Sam Bradford, Matthew Stafford, JaMarcus Russell, and Mario Williams would be less savior than table-setter. Even more, the passion and the work-ethic to prove their worth would be greater—possibly translating into more-focused play on the field.  

For example, Sam Bradford's contract would likely look like this: 3-years, $8.5 million with around $4 million guaranteed—sounds like a bargain, right? Perhaps Bradford's agent wouldn't be nearly as happy with his cut, but in my opinion, it's high time the agents stopped becoming the focal point of the negotiation.

Let's get back to the dollars and sense of it all: if it doesn't make sense, don't spend the dollars. Period.

Some might say, well, what if Bradford comes in and blows people out of the water (leading the Rams to the playoffs in his first two years as a starter)? At that point, you have a situation where the Rams will be placed into a bidding war for his services—they could lose him to a team with deeper pockets.

Look at what happened in Cleveland with LeBron James!

That's a good point, but, you have to take into account your relationship with that player as well. If he sees the opportunity to continue with the franchise that drafted him as a positive thing (i.e. they are bringing in the right personnel and making the proper adjustments around him to help him maintain his success), then the likelihood of him bolting is minimal.

It's a calculated risk but it's a risk worth taking when you consider the sheer number of players selected in the Top 10 who don't pan out.

The downside of this is that as the picks get higher, the guys outside of the Top 15 will stand to make even less money than they do now. However, that also means that some early-entry players from the NCAA ranks could decide to stick around a little longer to increase their draft stock.

As a college football, fan, I see little wrong with that scenario. One more year of Knowshon Moreno and Matthew Stafford would have been nice for Georgia in 2009—just saying.

In the end, though, there is plenty to be discussed and lots to consider when making a change as big as this one would be. However, the fact remains, it's time for a NFL Rookie Wage scale to be put into place—pay needs to start reflecting play instead of potential.

Nuff' said.

JaMarcus Russell Goes From Bust to Busted—What's Next?

The saga, and yes it has officially become one, of JaMarcus Russell just took him from being an NFL bust to an NFL cautionary tale.

Late Monday evening, as we all ate dinner and found less criminal things to do, JaMarcus Russell found himself at the wrong end of a drug bust. Russell was in possession of codeine syrup—a prescription-only medication. 

The reason Russell was in possession of the substance was, allegedly, so that he could make a cocktail composed of codeine cough syrup and promethazine—more popularly known as "syrup" or "purple drank".

When mixed together, the combination of the two drugs have the capability of altering an individual's level of consciousness—placing them in a state that, in many ways, mimics the feeling of being heavily sedated.

It's been used for years by southern rap artists but first came into pop culture awareness after Three 6 Mafia and UGK, a popular Houston-based rap group, released the song, "Sippin' on Syrup".

I have to admit, the first thought that came to my mind after hearing about this incident was, "it figures".

After all, at this point, nothing that I hear or read about JaMarcus Russell surprises me. The guy has, seemingly, never shown any appreciation for the opportunities he's been granted thanks to his physical ability. He's displayed nothing but arrogance and immaturity at every possible turn because JaMarcus has always been about JaMarcus. So, unfortunately, this drug bust didn't shock me.

Let me be clear on this much before I go further, anyone who is making light of this obviously isn't aware of how serious this situation can be for Russell. He may actually be struggling with a serious addiction. "Syrup" has taken lives and ruined careers. If Russell has been doing this for as long as it's been rumored, it would explain some of his behavior.

However, at the same time, it's difficult to feel much in the way of compassion for a guy who has never shown anyone even the slightest bit of humility or genuineness. He's got far more haters than anything and, at this point, there are many who would just as soon see him fail miserably than rebound—he has only himself to blame for that fact.

Even still, it's tragic that he's taken the liberty of squandering his life away without a second-thought. Moreover, the fact that no one around him seems to have enough influence in his life to let him know just how tremendously bad the choices he's making truly are.

So, what happens to him now? The possible NFL return is on hold—indefinitely. At this point, he's become a pariah for any sports franchise because he doesn't seem to have a clue what it takes to maintain any level of professionalism on or off the field.

Furthermore, he doesn't have any measure of professional success to pull from that can allow anyone to say, well, if we can just do x, y, and z, then he'll be great for the team.

No. He's a bust with a drug problem. Neither looks good on a resume and neither is appealing in the eyes of a pro franchise that would likely be expecting him to prove to them that he was worth the gamble—in essence he's actually more screwed now than he was before.

I truly didn't know that he could make things any worse.


As a football fan, I imagine there were already a ton of people who decided that Russell was no longer worthy of their attention as a player. However, now, there may be just as many who write him off as a man—at just 24-years old.

What a cautionary tale indeed.

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