Terrelle Pryor Is the Collegiate Athlete That LeBron James Never Got to Be

Tonight, I finally got around to catching the Terrelle Pryor edition of Jon Gruden’s Quarterback Camp on ESPN, and I have to say, I’m certainly glad I got to see what the whole thing was all about.

I had read a few scattered reports from different writers and fans which portrayed Pryor as looking nervous and slow-witted throughout the piece, and at least in my opinion, that was definitely not that case.

I came away from the admittedly somewhat scripted meeting, thinking even more highly of the young quarterback, just as Gruden seemingly did, marveling at Pryor’s personality makeup and outstanding physical ability by the end of the interview and the workout.

The most telling quote from Gruden was, “It’s in you to be great.”

That’s it. That’s the summation right there.

No other simple phrase can come close and get right down to the very core of what Terrelle Pryor is as both a football player and an athlete.

It's what Ohio State fans have been complaining and clamoring about for the last three years.

They all kept asking ‘when is the supposed superstar finally going to take the step from very good to great.’

When you promise people, especially college football fans, that something is going to be great, then it damn well better live up to expectations or else you'll certainly hear their dismay loud and clear.

We’ve all known the potential has been there, dating all the way back to the winter of 2008 when Pryor held the recruiting world hostage before finally announcing his intentions to play for The Ohio State.

I remember getting a look at Pryor’s YouTube highlights for the first time when he was a high school senior at Jeannette. And I thought pretty much the same exact thing as Gruden.

My first reaction was, if this kid ever gets it, he’s going to take over the sport.

Getting it, of course, meaning maturing as a man and continually developing as both a quarterback and a leader.

Considering all the recent allegations and rumors that have plagued Pryor, the ‘getting it’ thing appears to be the part which somehow got lost in the transition from high school to college.

The talent was obviously there, no doubt.

You don’t go 23-3 in two years as a full-time starter, win back-to-back BCS bowl game MVPs and amass over 3,500 yards of total offense as a junior and over 8,300 yards for your career without possessing elite talent.

The talent wasn’t enough, though. We needed to see the display of maturity that we were never treated to.

Sure the cocky jackass freshman version of Terrelle Pryor, the one which more than a few older teammates couldn’t stand, faded over time, but Pryor never fully tried to endear himself to the nationwide college football fan base.

Ever since Pryor’s prolonged recruiting decision, he has felt the scorn of the majority of college football fans. 

So when Pryor committed the violation that ultimately doomed his collegiate career, he was almost instantaneously vilified by millions of football fans all around the country.

Cheat, thief, low-life, home wrecker, coward, punk.

The name calling only intensified with each passing day.

And what was the terrible atrocity against humanity that everyone jumped all over Pryor about?

The kid, and yes there’s an emphasis on kid, sold a pair of his own hard-earned game pants and other assorted awards he had earned from his athletic achievements in exchange for some harmless free tattoos.

Yup.

I mean, come on, the Mayans must be right.

If this is the basic trivial stuff that so-called sophisticated thinking individuals flip out about and lambaste a fellow human being for, then we’re officially done as a species.

That's it.

Ladies and gentlemen, He sold his pants!

DUI, marijuana possession, domestic assault?

No, no and not even close.

Again, in a little louder, bolder and much more heavily-capitalized voice, HE SOLD HIS PANTS!

This is the stuff we obsess over?

If LaMichael James beats up his girlfriend?

Eh, give him a pass. He’s a first-time offender.

Janoris Jenkins gets caught for multiple marijuana-related offenses?

Hey man, it’s Florida, you know, it happens. Just let him go play FCS for a year.

Reggie Bush costs a major program two straight years of bowl eligibility?

Whatever. Put him in another Subway commercial.

But if Terrelle Pryor sells his pants?

Lord have mercy. Raise the guillotine!

More than 25 NFL players have been arrested since the lockout began, each time for much more serious crimes than selling a pair of their own pants, and none of them faced anywhere close to the national media scrutiny that Pryor endured over the last few months.

And you know what, he’s a better person for it.

At age 22, Terrelle Pryor has already taken a strong right hook from the national sports media, and so far, he’s stumbled a bit but managed to stay on his feet.

Pryor seems to be the collegiate personification of one of his very own sports idols, LeBron James.

Because the straight-to-the-pros rule was still in place back when LeBron was a high school senior in 2003, everyone naturally assumed he would skip college, which robbed us of the chance to witness how a recruiting hunt for that kind of coveted high school prospect would unfold.

Maybe we’re now witnessing with Pryor what it possibly would have been like for LeBron if he was forced to play three years of college basketball.

Could you imagine LeBron at Memphis for three years when Calipari was the coach?

Could you imagine how big 'The Decision’ would have been if it were LeBron choosing a college?

There would have been more publicity than the attention Pryor and Jimmy Clausen received combined.

His every move in college would have been documented and the pressure to win would have been immense.

If LeBron went to say Memphis or Duke, and failed to win a national championship, he would have been considered a bust and a failure, and he wouldn't have had the ‘second coming’ persona that he actually entered the league with.

Maybe if LeBron played solid overall, made a few eye-popping plays every game, and carried his school to a substantial amount of wins, just as Pryor did, he would have been considered very good.

But if he failed to bring home a championship, he probably would have entered the NBA with less buildup and hype.

Given what we saw in this year’s playoffs, it seems like a very reasonable assumption to think that LeBron could have had a tough time handling the scrutiny of being the star of a major college sports team.

I’d imagine it’s got to be a ton of pressure to be expected to win a national title every year, and that’s something Terrelle Pryor had to deal with since he officially took over the starting job at the beginning of his sophomore season.

During his three years at Ohio State, Pryor never managed to get a sniff of a national title or a Heisman Trophy, but when you look back on his career, one thing inevitably sticks out the most.

Terrelle Pryor showed he had the one thing that we consider the most important trait of an NFL quarterback.

Pryor rose to the highest level on the biggest of stages.

Whether it was his performance in the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, or a one-sided match up with hated rival Michigan, Pryor always performed at his best when it counted.

Yet, for some reason, America will never embrace Terrelle Pryor, just as they will likely never embrace LeBron James again.

No matter what Pryor accomplished at Ohio State, it’s all been tainted now, and when it comes to the common American sports fan, perception is reality.

Pryor’s exactly what everyone has painted him as.

He’s now the villain. Just like LeBron.

Pryor has followed the same path as LeBron, only he’s done it at the collegiate level, and he’s now feeling the same kind of public backlash.

As a quarterback, Terrelle Pryor has been picked apart and labeled just a project with a weak-arm, a soft personality and a slow release.

The fact that he has rare athletic gifts for the position gets overlooked every time in favor of a few correctable flaws.

There are people saying Terrelle Pryor doesn’t even deserve to be drafted.

They say he doesn’t deserve a chance to play quarterback in the NFL.

It’s all nonsense.

If I were managing a team like the Miami Dolphins or the Seattle Seahawks and Terrelle Pryor is available with a second-round pick in the Supplemental Draft, he’d be gone as soon as my team was put on the clock.

People, even Pat White got the chance to play quarterback, and Pat White was one of the worst passers I ever had the misfortune of laying my eyes on.

White would make a basic bubble screen pass look like a wild adventure and yet, the Dolphins decided to scoop him up in the second round.

When it comes down to it, neither White, nor Tim Tebow, nor Cam Newton are the same caliber of athlete as Terrelle Pryor.

He’s a rare specimen that’s been cast to the curb for no good reason.

Honestly, what makes Cam Newton, this year’s No. 1 pick, so much better than Pryor?

Pryor has had three years at the collegiate level to develop as a passer in a pro-friendly system.

Newton had one year of running around in a gimmicky spread offense.

There was one big play that Cam Newton had to make all season, sneaking it one yard to clinch the national championship, and he came up short.

He got stuffed cold by Oregon and Auburn was forced to rely on a field goal.

Come on, even Matt Leinart made the sneak.

I saw Pryor come up with about five critical third-down runs in that Sugar Bowl win.

There were times when Pryor made a respectable SEC defense look like something that just crawled out of the Sun Belt.

He’s trying to prove to the world that he’s got the talent, but people just have to open their eyes to see it instead of being so quick to jump all over him.

After his own much-scrutinized ‘Decision’ coupled with his championship shortcomings, Terrelle Pryor is now dealing with the same things LeBron James has been forced to handle recently.

And in the end, it could prove to be the motivation the young quarterback needs to make it in the NFL, much to the chagrin of his many critics.