Ben Bomberger Declares for 2009 NFL Draft

Bleacher Report has learned exclusively that Ben Bomberger (of Radford University in Virginia) will file the necessary paperwork for the 2009 draft.

Bomberger spoke exclusively with B/R on Tuesday morning.

"I just felt it was the right decision," Bomberger said.

Bomberger was a stand-out soccer player at Carroll County High School in Virginia, but played only one season of competitive football.

"You know, I played wide-receiver and corner back when I was in sixth grade, so I feel confident about my ability."

After taking a nearly 14 year hiatus from the sport, Bomberger has decided to throw in all his marbles with this year's draft.

"Sure, I may not be the most talented player in the draft, but hey, a team could get me really cheap."

In high school, Bomberger opted not to continue his football career, instead focusing on soccer.

He was named to the All-District team both his junior and senior year and received honorable-mention on the Virginia state team.

When asked if punting and/or kicking might be an option for Bomberger, he got angry and said, "NO."

"I'm not about to be a kicker man, I want the fame and glory of being the wide receiver who catches the game winning touchdown, or the corner back who has that pick-six to finish the Super Bowl win."

When asked if he was worried about his college stats of zero catches for zero yards with zero interceptions, Bomberger again said "no."

"OK, so the college I graduated from didn't have a football team, no big deal, I played on the intramurals teams. Dude, I had like nine interceptions in a 10-game season, you can't be that, I mean the leading guy in college this year had what...six? And he had 14 games to do that."

Confident that someone will pick him up, Bomberger has no worries about quiting his day job as a reporter for his local paper.

"Nah man, I'm not worried about it, someone will draft me, I'm not even thinking about being picked up as a free agent, someone is going to pick the big-BOMB."

Bomberger, weighing in at 175 pounds and 5'11" thinks he has what it takes to play at the next level.

When asked what his max bench was, he seemed content that 125 pounds would do the trick.

"It's not about how much you can lift, it's about how many times you can lift it."
And how many times can Bomberger lift 125 pounds?

"Four... alright... four times, but dude that's my max, give me a break."

He brings a 4.50 40-yard dash time to the table (that's four minutes and 40 seconds by the way), and has a vertical leap of 4.5 inches.

Bomberger said he recorded 34 tackles during his last season at Radford, and caught 12 touchdown passes.

"I even threw one for a touchdown on one of them end around, toss to the quarterback type of plays. We nailed that one, bro."

While his size, stature and physical ability may not be that of a typical NFL draftee, his heart is the size of a cantaloupe.