From a piece by Yahoo! Sports’ Les Alexander:
There is a lot that comes with staying for a senior year. After throwing for 2,800 yards and scoring a combined 28 touchdowns passing and throwing last season his name has emerged as a Heisman Trophy candidate. He is now the No. 1 quarterback prospect in next spring’s NFL draft. This time many more people are declaring him the top pick. But there is also a price. A potential NFL lockout looms. No one knows exactly what the pay system will be when the labor dispute is resolved.
Veterans and league executives alike were outraged that this year’s top pick, quarterback Sam Bradford from Oklahoma could get six years and $78 million as the No. 1 selection last spring. More likely the new system will have a more modest rookie pay scale. So if Locker truly could have been the top selection this past spring he may have cost himself tens of millions of dollars.
But sometimes it’s not the money. Something Scott Locker learned when his son, then 17, was drafted by the Los Angeles Angels to skip college and play center field. He sat Jake down and said that the contract would be about $2 million and that he had been hanging drywall for 20 years and couldn’t make the kind of money Jake would make with one swoop of his pen. His son, if he was smart, could be set for life.
Scott recalls him looking up and saying: “Dad, if I ever asked for something you’ve always been able to get it, so maybe the money thing isn’t important.”
I’ve always liked Jake Locker, even back when he was still just a young QB leading a horrendously awful team that couldn’t manage to win games, much less put together a winning season. This piece makes me like him even more (even if it is just a little bit too sappy).
