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Sam Bradford considered quitting football after second ACL tear

Frank Schwab
·NFL writer

When Sam Bradford went down with a second torn ACL in less than a year last preseason, it would have actually been odd if the thought of retiring hadn't crossed his mind.

The road back from a major injury like that is not a ton of fun. When Bradford re-injured his ACL in a preseason game at Cleveland last season, the thought of doing all that rehab again had to be devastating.

It's really no surprise that the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that Bradford, who was traded from the St. Louis Rams to the Philadelphia Eagles this offseason, needed to be talked out of retirement by Josh Heupel, his former quarterbacks coach at Oklahoma.

"When a player goes through a big letdown, it's natural to be down," Heupel, who was the quarterback for Oklahoma's 2000 national title team, told the Inquirer. "I just tried to reach out to him and say, 'Hey, I still see this in you as a person and a player. I think the best is yet to come for you. You've got to get yourself healthy and get yourself back on the field and get yourself in the right environment with the right people and the right supporting cast around you, and there's no doubt in my mind you'll achieve the things you're capable of achieving and want to achieve.'"

The Eagles' trade for Bradford has been criticized, and the fact that Bradford thought about walking away from the NFL less than a year ago could be used as more ammunition, but it shouldn't be. We just saw quarterback Jake Locker walk away from the NFL after injury issues. Bradford has made more than $60 million already, thanks to being the last No. 1 pick in the old, crazy salary structure for rookies, and he had two major knee injuries as well as a shoulder injury at Oklahoma that cost him most of a season there. He had plenty of reasons to think about walking away.

But Bradford is back and in a new environment, thanks to Eagles coach Chip Kelly's faith in his talent, which never translated to much production with the Rams. But the Inquirer story is a good reminder that Bradford still has plenty of physical hurdles, and probably a few mental blocks, to work through as he tries to establish himself as a top NFL quarterback.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!