Whose life is it..

I remember during my 20 years stint at UMASS- AMHERST watching the a college game and I cant remember if it was a senior bowl or the annual Ohio St. and Michigan tilt, watching the safety from Michigan Vada Murray get injured in the game when Michigan had the game in hand. I remember Bob Griese talking about how it would be tragic if the young man's career is over thus costing him a chance to make millions. He never played in the NFL and to my knowledge he never played in Canada either. Watching Sam Bradford get dumped on his bad shoulder on saturday, i couldnt help but think of Vada Murray. Murray was an all-american player who could do it all on the field. Look how high he is on this block field goal attempt scary.. Sam Bradford would have been the number 1 player taken in the draft last year some people say. He most certainly would have been next year but he came back to college to try and win a national championship for his university. I respect that but what role does a coach have in telling a student athleet to stay or go?
When Shaquille Oneal was at LSU, his coach Dale Brown told Shaq to go pro because he felt that the other teams in the conference was going to injure him. There had been several incidents where opposing players were excessive fouling Shaq and in a game against Tennesse Brown had had enough and ran on the court to restrain Shaq from retaliating against this over- matched player. They were fouling him to make him shoot foul shots and taking the fun out of the game for Oneal who would have been the 1st overall pick in the draft in the previous season. Even though LSU never did much in the big tournament during Shaq's time there Coach Brown did the right thing by telling him to go get paid. Dean Smith told Micheal to get paid. Sam Bradford is getting a lot of heat because he came back and no one really knows if he got advice to stay in school or go pro. Colt McCoy announced during the season last year he was returning so we will never know if he had any advice. Tim Tebow probably heard from every armchair quarterback that he was not ready for the pros and stayed in school to make his legacy even bigger than it is. When he had that concussion two weeks ago everyone in Florida had a heart attack. Coach Bob Stoops is getting criticized for poorly advising Bradford when Bradford should have gone pro this year. Now Bradford has one more year of eligibilty left and could come back next year. Should Coach Stoops push him out the door? I think he should. You go to college to find a career. Whether it is medicine, sports, arbor culture, you go to school to find a future. Unlike college basketball which has rules that i find ridiuclous, a college football player has to be in his 3rd year of college or over 20. The college basketball rule says 19 or over. Then everyone chimes in about dying for your country at 18 and being able to make a living. Then i go crazy... Coaches should be on the phone trying to look out for the best interest for their players period. The coach is usually the closest thing to a parent they should protect the players from themselves and provide the best advice possible. Football is a violent sport where players get hurt all of the time. No one could have forseen this disaater and i am surprised that an insurance policy wasn't taken out before the season for him, McCoy or Tebow. There several players that have these dilemmas each season. Mark Sanchez did not listen to his college coach and went pro. He is living the dream and despite his performance yesterday, has been playing quite well. Maurice Claret and Mike Williams tried to go pro against the wishes of their coaches and universities and they are both out of the league. Claret got drafted much later than he expected and is doing a bit in prison right now. Williams got fat played sparingly and is out of the league. Williams is a tragedy because he really was a man amongst boys on the field. He just was too young. Claret thought he was the equivalent to Lebron James and really got bad advice. Nothing is certain in life. The horrible tragedy of the cornerback from Connecticut being stabbed over the weekend should serve as a reminder that life is short and play hard. and get paid...