Teammates right behind him all the way

Sam Bradford stood and answered questions. This past Saturday, he said, was the hardest game he'd ever had to sit out.

He was going to announce his plans last week, but Sunday, when he told Bob Stoops he thought he'd be ready to let everybody in by the middle of the week, he misjudged what he still had to process, kind of like the doctors misjudged how long he'd be out of action after separating his shoulder against BYU.

"I thought it would be easier," he said.

Then, almost magically, his teammates appeared behind him. More organic than dramatic, there they were.

Adrian Taylor. Brody Eldridge. Brian Jackson. Adron Tennell. Chris Brown. Dom Franks. Gerald McCoy.

If you'd never watched Sam Bradford pick apart a defense, check into just the right play upon walking up to the line of scrimmage, zip an impossibly accurate pass between tightly-covering defenders where only his guy could reel it in, there was still one more chance to really understand the common royalty of his presence among Sooners like himself.

The last time OU football was carried live on a day other than game day, it was the board of regents meeting in a horribly public way to give John Blake the boot.

Nice to know it could happen again, this time for a favorite son's farewell.

Because that's what it was Monday inside the Switzer Center's Big Red Room.

Bradford said he won't be hiring an agent any time soon and plans to take advantage of the time window he still has (through Jan. 15) to remain vigilant about his plans, meaning he might still return to Oklahoma should a setback occur requiring him to prove himself all over again via one more year in the college game.

Still, that requirement would first require a calamitous confluence of regrettable circumstance.

Here's what's going to happen.

He's going to have surgery.

He's going to rehab.

He will again be 100 percent physically.

He will wow them in workouts.

He will crush his interviews.

He will be a high first-round draft pick.

He will, barring more injury, enjoy a fantastic career in professional football. And when it's over, he'll probably still stand by a few of the words uttered Monday evening.

"I've been extremely blessed to be here," Bradford said. "The past three and a half years have been three and a half of the best years of my life. And you know, I wouldn't trade a day of it."

He may have given back more money than you and I will earn in our lifetime by coming back for another season, but it hardly bothers him, and not because he should make it all back and then some beginning next year, playing on Sunday rather than Saturday.

"Some people think money is everything but to me money is not everything," he said. "Look at these guys and look at the friendships that I've built and the experiences that I've had here ...

"I wouldn't trade any of it for money."

His voice cracked more than once. But that's about right, seeing as how he had to be breaking a few hearts.

Eventually, he finished.

Hard to know exactly how he'll be remembered.

A Heisman Trophy winner?

A native son?

A Native American native son?

The best quarterback ever to play at Oklahoma?

When he walked away, Gresham stepped to the mic. It was Stoops' idea. Headed toward the draft, too, why not give the All-American tight end his moment?

Yet first, a question about the guy who just finished. What was that like, watching Bradford speak?

"It's like looking at a brother talking to you," he said.

That about covers it.

Clay Horning 366-3526 cfhorning@normantranscript.com