Is Sam Bradford the Luckiest Man in Sports?

​When you think about the luckiest men in sports 2 normally come to mind. The bullpen catchers in the MLB and the third string QB’s in the NFL. Both positions carry significant salaries along with close to 0 expectations. Along with these you still get all the perks of being a professional athlete. Not only that but injury concerns or CTE scares are of no concern when you aren’t touching the field. After Sam Bradford’s latest contract, however, I am starting to believe that he may be the luckiest man in sports.

Let me toss some numbers out at you. In all honestly last year was arguably Bradford’s best year, his “breakout” year if you will, and don’t discount that he played under an offensive guy in Chip Kelly in the most wide open NFL in history. I could probably throw for 2,000 yards and 10 TD’s under Chip Kelly; Granted I might throw 50 INT’s but it doesn’t take much to move the ball under Chip. So Bradford as a 5 year vet in an up-tempo offense throws for 3,725 Yards 19 TD’s and 14 INT’s all adding up to a 41.83 total QBR good enough for 31st in the NFL. Pretty pretty bad right? His only other remotely good season was in 2012 with the Rams were he put up pretty similar numbers, almost identical actually, with a better QBR of 49.46. Now take away his name and high draft pedigree and is that a starting caliber NFL QB that a proud, storied franchise can hang their hat on? I think you call agree with me in saying no. Now let’s look at his contract situation. As a top draft pick Bradford was the highest paid rookie of all time, $76 Million. After an injury plagued and inconsistent tenure in St. Louis Bradford has largely resumed his same routine with the Eagles but just signed a 2 yr. $35 Million contract that carries an average salary of $17.5M, $22M of which is GUARANTEED, and an $11M signing bonus. I mean is this real life? How long can a guy live off of his college career? He has done nothing. But you can’t hate the player right? Whatever Sam is doing with his smoke and mirrors routine, keep it going Buddy.