Sam Bradford announced through a statement that he will undergo surgery on his injured shoulder this Wednesday and will enter the NFL draft this coming spring.
"I dreamed about coming to Oklahoma my whole life," Bradford said Sunday in a statement. "That's the reason I came back for this season. And I came back to play, not sit on the bench. That's the reason I tried to play after the injury. I'm very disappointed that it didn't work out differently.
"Under these circumstances, and after talking to several people, this is the right thing for me to do at this point."
Of course this is something that was speculated here on the Machine last week after Bradford re-injured his shoulder in the Texas game but Sunday's announcement makes it official and closes the door on one era while opening the door to another one. Landry Jones is no longer the backup quarterback filling in for Oklahoma's injured Heisman Trophy winner. He is now officially the quarterback for the University of Oklahoma.
This was the right decision for Sam Bradford. He was raised a Sooner and not only had the opportunity to fulfill his childhood dream of being an OU quarterback, he became the greatest of all time and became the university's latest Heisman winner. He came back to Oklahoma, after becoming the first quarterback in the history of the Big 12 to win multiple conference championships, in an effort to fulfill a dream and to give the fans something that they wanted as desperately as he did. Unfortunately his junior campaign turned into one disaster after another but that won't in any way, shape or form take away from his accomplishments as a Sooner.
It's also the right decision for this football team. While there is still the outside chance that OU can remain in the hunt for the conference championship the departure of Bradford will give the Sooners something that Texas and Oklahoma State won't have next season, an experienced quarterback. When a season turns as bad as it has this year there's nothing wrong with looking ahead to next season. Now we have a freshman quarterback trying to keep OU in the Big 12 South title hunt but in essence he's prepping himself, and his team, to lead the way next season to Oklahoma's fourth Big 12 title in five years.
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