Three years ago Carl Pendleton left football. As a member of Oklahoma Sooners, the then-junior had crossed into a new phase of his life and believed his days of strapping on a uniform were done.

However, he was wrong.

As one of almost 30 men, Pendleton has exchanged his helmet for a badge and his crimson and cream uniform for a blue one as a cadet in the Norman Police Department Academy.

"I think they knew," Pendleton said of his former OU coaches. "We talked about it all the time. When I was being recruited, it was one of the things I knew I was going to do. They are well integrated to who I am and my type of personality. My personally just fits this job. It really does."

Pendleton originally was scheduled to go through the police academy in Tulsa earlier this year. But as he has experienced throughout his life, plans have a funny way of taking a different direction.

The academy in Tulsa closed its doors. That quickly pushed Pendleton to deal with the fact that his dream of becoming a police officer might have disappeared before he had a chance to prove himself.

"Honestly, when that whole thing went down, I was in the process of packing my office here in Norman and I was really angry for 24 hours," Pendleton said. "I was unemployed for the first time since I was 14 years old. Didn't have a check coming in no way, shape or form. And I really didn't know how to react to it."

Pendleton said after getting over the anger, he relied on his faith that it would turn out OK. But he had to hit the streets looking for a job.

"I got up the next day, went to a job fair in Oklahoma City and put in some applications there," Pendleton said. "Then I got on the phone and started calling people I knew."

Pendleton got an unexpected call from Master Police Officer Chad Vincent, recruiter for the Norman Police Department.

"It was brought to my attention that Carl Pendleton was in the Tulsa Police Department hiring process," Vincent said. "I also heard the Tulsa Police Department, for funding purposes, cut their police academy, basically. We contacted Cadet Pendleton and talked with him a little bit, started looking into his background, discovered he is a highly qualified applicant. We felt he would be a good fit for our organization."

Vincent saw Pendleton as the type of recruit they look for in the Norman PD.

"We are always looking for people who bring different things to the table," Vincent said. "We want people from different backgrounds who have different experiences. We feel pretty confident we can teach or we can instruct any applicant to be police officers. But it's those skills and experiences they bring in from their prior law enforcement, that are really beneficial to us. Because we can put them in play out in the community."

What stood out about Pendleton are his ties to the Norman community. From working with Big Brothers/Big Sisters and other civic organizations to earning bachelor's and master's degrees, he immersed himself into the community. He believes that is one of the traits that will help him as a police officer.

"I think I'm objective for the most part," Pendleton said. "I know how to talk to people. I know how to make them feel like they are understood and listened to. I don't have an agenda besides wanting to be a helpful person. I have a lot of broad experiences that will help me understand. I have been on the poor side of life. I have been through some really successful areas of life. Even at a young age, I feel like I have an opportunity to be a big help to this community."

Pendleton left the Sooners in 2006 when he took over the parenting duties for his 10-year-old brother, Kierstan, as their parents worked their way through a divorce. Since then, he said he has watched his brother turn into a young man who is now back living with his mom.

While he doesn't regret his decision to give up football, there were parts of the game he missed. That included being on a team and depending others. He says he has found that in the academy.

"That's one thing I love about it," Pendleton said. "I have only been here three weeks now and these guys have accepted me like I was there from the beginning. Understanding that in a team atmosphere you have to do your job, but if you don't do your job, other people can't do theirs. Same thing on a football team. If one guy didn't go to class, we all would get in trouble. I understand how important it is to depend on other people to protect yourselves. Same thing happens athletically, but here it's life or death. Everyone depends on everyone doing their own thing. At the same time it's a collective effort. It's just a big family."

Michael Kinney 366-3537 mkinney@normantranscript.com