Hater In The House? Sooner NFL Draft Success Creating Jealousy...

There's an old saying that states "don't hate the player...hate the game."  And after seeing the 2010 NFL draft unfold, and watching three Oklahoma Sooners go in the top four picks - a feat unheralded in NFL draft history, there's bound to be a few who'd rather playa-hate than congratulate.

As a sooner fan, who had to endure a painful season due to many close losses and a string injuries that hit the Sooners like never before, it was the bright spot in my year to see Sam Bradford go #1 overall to St. Louis, to see Gerald McCoy go #3 to Tampa Bay, Trent "silverback" Williams go #4 to Washington, and Jermaine Gresham go #21 to Cincinnati.  All 4 players who could've left after losing to Florida in the title game back in 2009 and been first round picks, they all elected to return.  And while the season didn't go as well as hoped, their draft stocks didn't suffer for it.  It was a proud moment for the Oklahoma fans, considering how I've often felt ESPN gives OU an unfair shake on things, it was awesome to hear Chris Berman call it the "Oklahoma draft", and how John Gruden was happy "didn't have Oklahoma on the schedule." 

But an article featured on the Oklahoma Sooner Football page on Bleacher, which turned a proud accomplishment from the Sooner program into an opportunity to blast the Sooners, saying they were all talent and no team, since the team went 8-5 this year, really seemed either brainless, or out of jealousy.  Apparently, having nearly your entire offensive starting lineup be either first year starters or on injured reserve is simply an excuse, and that a "real team", like Alabama, wins regardless of whose on the field cause he's such a great coach...and their conditioning program is so good, no one gets injured (NOTE:  No word yet if this same Alabama coach has also discovered a cure for cancer, or how to turn water into wine...but that's probably for his next article).  Apparently, if your team suffers because they lost their Heisman trophy quarterback or the best tight end in the country, you're "just talent, not a team."

I don't have to be a brain surgeon to recognize what's wrong with such an article.  First off, if you're going to judge the entire OU football program, its much fairer to judge what OU was able to accomplish during the entire tenure of Bradford, McCoy, Williams, and Gresham, rather than judging them based on one 8-5 year of a lot of turnover and with two of them injured for nearly the entire season.  In their 4 years at Norman, Oklahoma became the only school in Big 12 history to win 3 consecutive conference titles. To put that in perspective, Alabama has had 2 conference titles in the last 17 years!  In 2008, they were the highest scoring team in college football history.  Add on the Heisman trophy, a few All-America status's, top 10 finishes in the AP polls, and a national title game appearance, and its easy to say this team (and these players) accomplished a lot.  But to point that out obviously requires a brain, which might be too much to ask for from SEC columnists.

Secondly, notion that its Stoops' fault if the players got injured is among the silliest things I’ve ever heard.  If Bob Stoops wasn't conditioning his players, they wouldn't be top picks in the draft!  Secondly, anybody who watches football at any level knows injuries is a part of the game, and avoiding it is mostly a matter of luck.  While certain players are more injury prone than others, when the injury bug hits, it hits.  During Stoops tenure, guys have gotten injured, but Stoops has never had a rash of injuries like he had this season before this one.  Most of these injuries took place on offense, right as he was replacing 7 offensive starters from the 08 season.  To put this in perspective, by the halftime of the opening game against BYU, Stoops only had 2 RETURNING STARTERS on offense (Trent Williams and Chris Brown), and one was playing a new position!  For most of the season, Stoops was forced to play a freshman quarterback along with converted tight ends on the offensive line, due to injuries.  And then they are playing teams like Miami and Nebraska on the road, and Texas and BYU on neutral sites.  Keep in mind, of those 4 games, OU lost by a combined 12 points.  I guess in the minds of a thoughtless SEC writer, 12 points is the difference between being a team and not being a team. 

Now I could go on arguing all the other faults of this article, but that would be pointless.  Rather, I'll point the article out for what it is:  Jealousy.  Here you have these SEC homers, and all they bloviate about is how the SEC has the best players, the best coaches, the best rivalries, the best teams, the best everything.  It’s made even worse since ESPN "feeds the SEC beast" with its 2 Billion dollar contract.  So all these SEC homers hear about is how their conference is the best, and when the deepest NFL draft in recent memory occurs, and millions are watching, the top 4 players in the draft aren't SEC players, but BIG 12 players!  And the 3 of the top 4 players didn't come from an SEC school, but from Oklahoma!  So much for "when the NFL looks for players, it goes to the SEC first..."  Apparently, they stopped in Norman first, and I guess the homers really can't handle that, so they have to find a way to turn this into a negative for OU so that everyone doesn't forget that it’s really the SEC that's the best!!!

Now of course, anyone can write close to any article they choose, no matter how thoughtless and devoid of logic they are.  However, during a time in which Sooner fans are so happy for the NFL draft success of 4 first round players and 3 of the top 4 players overall, I just wish our feature article is one praising the Sooner program for this amazing accomplishment, rather than cheap swipes from jealous fans elsewhere.