Bradlee Van Pelt - Part 1

The Early Years: When he arrived at Colorado State University, the skateboard wielding transfer quarterback from Michigan State was all the talk and a bit of a mystery. Fans called him “Sunshine” and no one could quite figure out Bradlee Van Pelt. Including Bradlee.

What Bradlee did know is he wanted to play quarterback and he stuck to his plan despite nearly everyone trying to push him to another position and never receiving any proper quarterback coaching. He threw footballs at targets for hours after practice, just waiting for his moment. When that moment came, Bradlee rose to the occasion and fans were calling for Sunshine to be under center. He made it and while the next two years involved some chaos, Bradlee won back to back Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Year awards.

Part 1 focuses on BVP’s early life, from growing up the son of an NFL player, the litany of sports he played, figuring out college and some choices he wishes he could have back and do over. Part 2 focuses on 2004 to present day, from the NFL Draft, bouncing around to a few teams, becoming a husband and a father.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
And I was seeing a psychologist andI was losing it. Like it was
the first time in my life whereI felt mentally like you're not in control.
Something's wrong. It was a reallytough year. And I also think
the coaches knew this. And Idon't want to say they weren't training me
to be quarterback right just because itliked me. Is more of like something's
going on and we don't know ifwe can control a situation. It's going

(00:22):
to be up to Bradley to gethimself out of this. Welcome to Cut,
Traded, Fired, Retired, aweekly podcast featuring conversations with professional athletes
and coaches who've experienced being cut,traded, fired, and or they're retired.
I'm your host, Susie Wargen.This episode's guest was polarizing when he
played quarterback for Colorado State University.If Bradley Van Pelt was on your team,

(00:45):
you loved him. If he wasn't, well, you probably didn't And
that was perfectly fine with BVP.Bradley had a wild path getting to Fort
Collins. He was a very talentedathlete in multiple sports growing up, but
had a site set on playing footballat Michigan State, where his dad had
been a two time All American safetyand the first defensive player to win the
Maxwell Award as the nation's best collegeplayer. So, despite all the recruitment

(01:07):
letters Bradley received, he went toMSU and after one year, his head
coach, Nick Saban was gone andthe Spartans' new staff wanted him to be
something other than quarterback. Bradley wasn'thaving it, so he transferred to Sonny
Lubik's Rams, where his first yearwas another struggle to prove that he belonged
at quarterback. Then in two thousandand two. In two thousand and three,
everything fell into place. He wasback to back Mountain West Conference Offensive

(01:33):
Player of the Year. This episodeis part one of two with Bradley van
Pelt. He has never sat downto tell his story in a format like
this, and he didn't hold back. We chatted for nearly three hours.
Many have been curious about what madeBradley tick, and now you get to
find out. Part one covers Bradleygrowing up through his time at CSU.
Part two will cover his time bouncingaround the NFL and his life now as

(01:56):
a husband and a father. Getready for some stories. You've never heard
before. Ladies and gentlemen. Bradleyvan Pelt The Early Years, Cut Traded
Fired Retired podcast with Susie Wargen BradleyFreaking Van Pelt. How are you.
I'm good. It's it's like ablast from the past to be back here.
Yeah, it's great to see you. I've seen you a couple times

(02:19):
this year. We were at theshowdown, and now you're here for the
athlete Alumni Weekend. You were aprevious Colorado State Athletics Hall of Fame member,
class of twenty thirteen. I wantto say, yeah, I looked
at the medal recently because I forgotand I didn't know what year, and
I looked at the medal and I'mlike, wow, twenty thirteen, and
I think that was the last timeI saw you before. I saw you
earlier this year, So ten yearsago, I saw you at that banquet.

(02:40):
Yeah, I could be that eventmaybe the last time you had even
been here to Colorado State in thegame. Yes, I think it's probably
been a decade since I've had aninteraction with the team. So I've been
to Colorado plenty of times. Istill am very active. A lot of
friends here. I just I forsome reason how it turned out. I
you know, I don't remember thelast time I was back. Yeah,
I know. But now you're back, getting a little more involved, which

(03:00):
is great, and we're going tokind of go through all of your time.
It's time to get to know Bradleybetter. You've always been such a
mystery to people. I know.Yeah, yeah, Well, you know
we talked about earlier, you know, architect your own life and my life
needed and still needs to be written, and I'm in the process of writing
it. I love it. You'reborn in Michigan. When does the transition

(03:21):
from Michigan to California happen? Iknow you've got the history with your dad
there, and of course we'll talkabout your college time there too. Yeah.
So born in a Waso, Michigan. My dad's inn Wasso Native,
a small town outside of east Land, Singe. My dad was a New
York giant at that time, sowe literally spent six months in New York
and then we spent six months inMichigan roughly, so my early childhood was

(03:44):
traveling between New York and Michigan.And my mom's from Michigan as well Detroit,
so it was between family and Iguess you'd say sport. It was
when my father got traded back inthe eighties. There wasn't free agency,
right, so it was different onhow you got traded and moved teams.
My father always wanted to play forAl Davis and La Raiders, and so

(04:05):
he at the tail end of hiscareer and I say tail in about eleven
years and twelve years for a longtime was and he had And there's a
lot to be said about that storybecause my father, who passed away you
know, far too early, youknow, had a tremendous career and was
a tremendous athlete and a person.But he wanted to get to a winning

(04:25):
team and he didn't want to necessarilyleave the New York Giants. But he
really only had one winning season inten years. And him being in the
you know, pretty much the predominantNew York Giant at the time since in
the decade player of the seventies,which is a you know, huge honor
and ring of fame of the NewYork Giants, he understandably wanted to go
change scenery. And my mom Ithink too, you know, they needed

(04:46):
to change scenery. So they gotto LA and we were in Elie Raiders,
and so that's where we got tothe West coast. From the West
Coast, we stayed in LA fora few years before he retired and we
went to Santa Barbara. A formercoach of his, Duffy Dorberty out of
Michigan State, who's a legendary coach, kind of on part with Sonya Lubit
kind of style. You know,he's national championship winning coach. I think

(05:08):
he coached for thirty something years atMichigan State. He retired in Montecito,
part of Santa Barbara, kind oflike an enclave of Santa Barbara, and
convinced my father they were very close, Hey, this is where you need
to retire. Let's come up here. You know, we'll help you out
kind of thing, like the transitionis going to be difficult, and for
especially the older athletes, it wasbecause the emphasis and the transition, you

(05:29):
know, wasn't ever really spoken about. So that's how we got to Santa
Barbara, California. And then that'swhere you end up growing up. You
go to San Marcos High School whereyou play quarterback and safety. Yeah,
and three I was of four sport. Yeah, so I played four sports.
I couldn't play football till high school. And this is what's interesting is
having a young son. Now Ihave five children. We talked about which
is is a true blessed See thebreak down on your five kids. So

(05:50):
we have three girls and two boys. Wow. I always thought I was
gonna have a lot of boys.And again told the tangent of a story,
but we'll talk about it. Myfather came from four boys, right,
Wow, his father came from threeboys, and I believe the generation
before was all males. So inmy you know, my youth, I
always thought I'm gonna have boys.That's just how it's going to be.
I'm like, I'm the I'm thealpha of the litter. And I knew

(06:12):
it just because it's and my brothersmy mom were like, why do you
say that. I go, well, because I'm a lot bigger, taller
than you, and I just Ithink I'm just more athletic. Well I
am. Yeah. I was like, it's just after like decades, it's
just kind of evident, right,It's just how how it is. The
reason I brought it up because Iwas like, ah, you know,
like my dad, I'm gonna havea bunch of boys. Well, and
I ended up my first boy rightwho came out. I was like,

(06:33):
you're right, I'm gonna have aball boys. And my second kid was
a girl, and I just didn'taccept it. I'm like, nah,
she's that's not the plan. That'snot the plan. My third came,
I was a girl, and I'mlike, Okay, we're struggling here because
my plan the architect of my oldlife. I go, I'm not the
architect. Now, there's other thingshappening. And then we had it.
You know, our fourth was aboy, and I was like, hey,

(06:54):
back on track, right. Soit's just the children thing is interesting
because I had a vision. Yeah, and it's just amazing to have,
you know, daughters changed me asa person in really good ways. And
I just laughed and I share thestory because I was so hardheaded for so
long and I was so adamant thisis how life is going to be right,
and then I got into areas oflife that you can't control and you

(07:14):
have to be okay with Yeah.Absolutely, you say for sport athletes,
So what other sports aside from football, basketball, baseball, and soccer?
Okay? So I was a moreI would say, refined and accomplished soccer
player. Really yeah, interesting,So one of these kind of you know
factoids. I wasn't allowed to playtackle football and they didn't have flag football
when I was growing up, andI couldn't play tackle football to high school.

(07:36):
So soccer very early growing up inCalifornia, it was a sport that
was very popular versus sales. InMichigan growing up in the eighties, you
would be hard pressed to find,you know, soccer teams. So soccer
was natural for me, and Iwas very good and I ended up,
i guess, winning about anything youcould win through high school. So it

(07:58):
was very I guess evident early onthat soccer could have been a very part
for you, a path for meif that's where my folks or anyone around
me wanted to push me. Butonce I started playing football, it was
like, Okay, my destiny,this is what I'm destined to do.
You felt it as soon as youstarted playing football, Yeah, and I
felt it, but it was itwasn't like I discarded you know, basketball

(08:20):
or baseball, because you know,my dad wasn't accomplished baseball. He was
drafted five times in the Major leagues. Yeah, I was in such an
athlete. Yeah a lot. It'sa lot. And to understand because I
came from him and I was likehim, I'm almost like you know again,
I wasn't identical to him because Ihave half my mother and my mom's
no slouch, right though she's alittle smaller. She's a smaller five to
two woman. But so it waslike baseball. All these things were floating

(08:43):
around. So that's the sports Iplayed. On top of playing golf,
I did about everything you could beach, volleyball, because it was I had
the skills. It was easy forme, and I enjoyed it. I
was just that type of kid whereI just wanted to play everything all the
time. As soon as you didsomething and you were good at it,
yeah, and it made it easyto keep doing it because you're good at
it. It wasn't like you were, you know, pushed aside because hey,
you know, buddy, you're it'snot your sport right now, you
know. I picked up a tennisracket. I could play tennis because because

(09:07):
I had a again hand die vision, I knew how to move my wrist,
I could run around. So thoseare the four sports I played.
In high school and and it wasfootball eventually that I just said is my
destiny, and that was my head. This is what I'm supposed to do,
this is what I dreamt of doing. I just got to keep going
this route, right. And thenyour senior year, you have thirty seven
touchdowns, forty one tackles, andthree picks. So are you playing at

(09:28):
all times except for special teams?Kind of? Yeah. So my senior
year, they the coaches at thattime, were playing me on defense.
But I don't think I played asmuch as I could have, partially because
I think it was the injury,the idea that if I go do something
on defense, tackling because I wasn'ta natural defender. And I think I

(09:50):
say that because so many coaches wantedto make you I didn't have the aggression,
so I didn't. I'm not someonethat thought about going and tackling someone.
Hitting someone. That was never partof my DNA. I was someone
that wanted to run away from people. I was someone who wanted to throw
a football, so tackling hitting inthat part never came natural. You know,

(10:11):
It's interesting because I would say mydad was that way too. My
dad was a quarterback entering Michigan State. He was a quarterback in high school.
It was only that his coaches talkedto him and said, hey,
Brad, you could either be abackup quarterback or you can play defense and
you could be a monster. Andby the way, he was huge.
He was huge. He was sixor five and he was you know,

(10:31):
he ran a force. I mean, he was a specimen at that time.
It was very unique. So it'sinteresting three decades later that I'm in
the same position. I'm unrefined quarterback. Nobody really wants to coach me as
a quarterback, but everyone wants toget me on defense because it's my natural
position. Yet, just like myfather, it wasn't natural in me to

(10:54):
want to go tackle, hit andrun. I was on the other side,
and that was something Dad and Iknew, I think together. That's
why he was always happy that Istuck with quarterback and I stuck with things,
because even though I could have beensuccessful on the other side of the
ball, it wasn't what was naturalfor me. And what I really was
passionate. And you have to bewilling to do that. You have to

(11:16):
be wanted. And those guys thatare on defense a lot of them will
say I get to hit guys andI don't go to jail for it,
And I love that exactly. Andthat's not everybody's DNA. No, it's
not. And that's a problem whencoaches, you know, try to convert
people from offense to defense when it'snot natural. Some works out right,
but others it doesn't because it's justnot in their DNA. And it's hard.
Again, you don't want to getup and hit people, just not.

(11:39):
And I'm definitely not that type ofperson. Okay. Still never been
in a fight in my life,kay, haven't. No, And outside
of one time in college that mybuddy who was next to me, we're
talking twenty years through a punch andI was and I had to like,
I've never been in a fight.Like, I'm not an aggressive man.
I could have an aggressive tongue,but when it comes to a physical col

(12:00):
sense, I'm like my father,I'm not aggressive in that. You think
when you see me on the footballfield that I take that mentality off it
and I'm not the most aggressive youprobably ever were? Was the spike on
the helmet? Probably? Yeah.I mean there's times where people have pushed
me and there's It's interesting because againit's back to this like natural like DNA,
like I am not an aggressive guy. I do not want to go
fight people. I want to compete, I want to run around. I'm

(12:22):
an athlete. I love the conceptright of being an athlete, but I'm
not an aggressive person that wants tohurt people, right, especially physically,
you know, I think emotionally andall, that's a whole different story.
Yeah, you're a verbal genius withyour emotions, right, well, I
like to think that, you know. Yeah, well, because maybe you
have to be because I'm I'm nota physical genius. So I think I

(12:43):
put a lot more thought into words, could use my mind, right because
I was around intellecx too, SoI thought it was a part of the
balancing act of you know, athlete. Was you gotta be a little more
cerebral head game? Yeah? Absolutely, And that's another reason why people loved
you too. I mean, itwas the head and the talking, and
yeah, I know that it wasn'tAnd let me tell you a lot of
the season we were talking about thoseyears. Even though I liked this concept

(13:07):
of being an architect of your lifein your twenties, you're still very much
going off the cusp, like you'rejust being yourself. You're not really thinking
about your actions, right, You'rejust in the moment. It's only now
in your thirties and forties now goingup to my mid forties, that you're
starting to go okay, yeah,you know, I could think about my
actions beforehand, but in my twentiesit was just right. I had no
filter. No, I didn't havea filter, but luckily the filter maybe

(13:30):
think of this. The exhaust hadno filter, but the exhaust was good.
So it wasn't like they're taking abad kid and try to put a
filter on, because something bad's gonnahappen if we don't put a muzzle or
a filter on this kid. Ithink people knew I was a good kid
and let him do his own thing, and hopefully he doesn't get in too
much trouble. And that's kind ofhow life went, right, like,
hopefully he doesn't go off the rails, And I didn't, right, I

(13:50):
never went off the rails, thoughI was always maybe tilting right now,
there is always that. Yeah.I remember the one time when I was
hosting Sonny's show and he's like,and we had you as a guest and
I think you you stayed down somewhereto Buddy's house because Sonny didn't want you
to stay up in Fort Collins.He was afraid you wouldn't make it to
the show because we tape on Sundaymornings, and he's like, I'm gonna
have Bradley stay down there, andI'm gonna he might even gone to pick

(14:11):
you up. I think he said, he and Carol Joe, We're gonna
go pick you up just to makesure you made it to the show.
Yeah, that's exactly how well,just like this morning, Well it sounds
about right. Actually, twenty yearsthere, You're like, I'm not sure
he's going to show up. Youjust don't know. Yeah, Luckily for
Sonny, he is such a kindas you know, we can think about
Sonny and his name comes out,how good of a man he was,
and how lucky I was to havehim as a head coach, because again,

(14:35):
he was smart enough to allow meto be myself. And the results
I think were good. They werenot as good as they could have been
if I had maybe a little moreself control, but they were good and
it worked, and I think inhindsight, everyone's happy. Absolutely. Okay,
So let's backtrack a little bit togetting out of high school going to

(14:56):
college. You first go to MichiganState. Did you get recruited out of
high schoo school or did you justkind of have this like I want to
go where my dad went. Yeah, I got recruited heavily. We had
I mean, boxes and bags andyou name it. Any school was every
school football football, primarily football.But I wouldn't know that because I didn't
open any letters. Letters would comefrom schools and they just went into either

(15:20):
the trash or they went into abox. I was going to Michigan State,
like, it just didn't matter wholsent letters. I didn't open up
letters, so I didn't know ifif they said, hey, you can
come place three sports here, becausemy dad was a three sport athlete and
I really wanted to be a threesport athlete as well. But I also
realized too that if I wanted togo play at these top tier schools,
I just knew instinctively that, look, it's not the seventies, okay,

(15:43):
right, Yeah, he was allowedto do that because of the times,
the times, and because you know, it was the times. But also
my dad was taller than me.He was six or five. My dad
it was different times, and hewas physically slightly different than me. So
I'm just going to be pretty mucha one or two sport athletes because I
still had visions of playing baseball.The only school that I did take a
trip to was San Diego State.And it's strange because a coach named Ted

(16:06):
Tolner somehow got a hold of eitherme or my parents. So I went
down to San Diego State. Mybrother wanted to go down there, and
I was like, Hey, thisis great because it's a paid trip down
to San Diego. We can driveright and you can go. I think
he had a girlfriend down there,and he's like, you can go with
me, and I'll go, likesee this school, but I'm not going
to San Diego State, but I'llgo talk as this guy Ted, I

(16:26):
mean, and this is I thinkmy dad knew of Ted, because again
I think it might have come aroundhow like this was a good coach and
he wants to coach you, andthat's a concept we might come back to
later as this idea of coaching.So I went down there, and of
course it turned out like you know, my brother had a great time.
I'm sitting here going what am Idoing? Right? Because they think,
oh my god, he's coming downhere to have a chance. They think

(16:48):
they have a chance. When Iget down there and I'm talking to him,
they're okay, great, you're setup to go out typically your two
night trips. Yes, you're setup to go with this guy out tonight.
Said oh no, I don't wantto do that, and they're like,
what do you mean. I'm like, oh no, I don't care
about going out or meeting anyone orany like. They go, well,
this is what we do. Igo, well, that's great, but
I don't want to do that.Okay. Oh by the way, I'm

(17:11):
only going to stay here one night. And they were like, hang on,
this is a recruiting trip and you'retelling us how to do our recruiting
exactly and you know this And theywere blown away like this is not how
it goes in. But it wasso genuine Again, it wasn't out of
like a bad space in my heart. It was more of like they don't
understand why I was down here.Yeah, my brother wanted to go down
You brother want to see his girlfriend, yeah, and I want to just

(17:32):
meet a guy because I think mydad told me I should meet this guy,
and he ended up being someone Icame across with Ted Tolner years later.
Arguably I might have been a betterquarterback if I would have gone the
route of maybe going with someone likeTed Tolner because he wanted to coach me
and he wanted to bring me up. He said, I have the skills,
but I wasn't thinking that way inmy life, and I wasn't also

(17:52):
being advised that way. So,you know, those were kind of at
that age when you're in your youknow, when you're seventeen and such,
you do need a lot of advicethat sound and hopefully you get good advice
because there's yeah, you get alot of advice, not all of it's
good and all of it's good anda lot of people make a lot of
mistakes. So anyway, so thatwas my only other recruiting trip, which
like it was half hearted, butI was going to Michigan State, and
I think I took a trip toMichigan State which I didn't need to take

(18:15):
because you know, I was goingthere, and when I got there,
the same thing, I say,Hey, you're set up. I said,
that's great. I'm from Michigan,right, I'm going to go see
my family. Go, well,wait, aren't you going to go out?
I was like, no, Idon't care about going. I'm gonna
go see my family. And they'relike, Okay, this doesn't happen,
right, So it started. Itwas interesting to start. So I think
early on I knew things were goingto be different because I was approaching things

(18:36):
differently. Yes, it was justdifferent for me. So yeah, I
didn't I didn't get recruited. Imean I got recruited, but I didn't
let myself get recruited. And sothere was very there was very little interaction
with any other school outside of MichiganState. But I will say Nick Saban
was the coach in the y Iknow. I was like, Nick Saban
was your coach there? That's crazy, Yeah, and we finished fifth in
the country. Look, it wasto go to that kind of institution,

(18:57):
and I went there early. Iwas going early there to train because this
was my destiny. I was followingplan. It was going according to plan.
And I got there and of courseit was You're in the big leagues.
I'm running next to people and I'min a weight room and it was
like wow, things are different,and they they had a different at that

(19:18):
time, a little a slightly differentculture more probably indicative of the times,
right, Like you get in theweight room and your first day, basically
your whole point is trying to throwup, like we're going to push these
kids like they've never been pushed thefirst day they're here. They're gonna know
what it's about. You come inhere and we're going to basically strip you
bear, and we're gonna let youknow. It's like you're just enlisted in
the arm forcescurely, That's how itwas. And I remember like getting underneath

(19:41):
weight bars and I didn't really liftweights. I wasn't a weightlifter, didn't
you know, my coaches weren't.And I just remember running lifting and I
it was pushing physically to the maxthat I've never pushed my body in that
way because because we didn't train likethat right when I was younger in the
waymore yeah, exactly, yeah,exactly, the laid back life, right.
But we know because you train onthe field and you run hard and

(20:02):
you compete. But when you getto the concept of training, especially specific
football training. I never did specificfootball training, but when I got there,
this was like, look, you'regonna be another squad. I'm like,
okay, whatever, You're gonna beon this and like and this is
all like in the first day andyou're gonna run one hundred and ten yards
and you're gonna run new sprints.You're gonna run these sprints and to the
point, right, But I acclimatedvery well members my destiny. This is

(20:25):
good. And so the first yearwas an eye opener. And I was
extremely dedicated and very quiet. AndI was a little odd because people are
like, you don't want to hangout with us, and I go,
no, I'm gonna go with myfamily on the weekend. So my first
year of college experience was I onlystayed on campus maybe two weekends the whole
year. Wow. I left everyweekend, didn't drink, didn't do anything.

(20:48):
I left every weekend to go staywith my family and I'd come back
on Sunday night and I would getpicked up on Friday afternoon. And that's
just how it was. Wow,And people are like, he's different.
I was an engineering right, Idid well in school. Again, this
is what I'm here to do.I'm extremely focused, but I'm not like
religiously focused. Like like a wackokind of thing. I'm just you're just
super focused and freshman, right,read your freshman And I also you know,

(21:11):
and but it was a tough yeartoo because I wanted to play quarterback
and it was very evident at MichiganState that they didn't want me to play
quarterback. I was on, youknow what the scout team is, right,
Yeah, a lot of people areyou know what we mean scout team.
I took a knee. And atthat time, because again we finished

(21:32):
fifth in the country, right,and Nick Saban's the head coach, you
know, very strict program. Ididn't get a play football. I took
a knee. I literally didn't playfootball. I didn't even get it in
practice. I just took a kneeall practice because I wanted to play quarterback.
I was there to play quarterback andthey had different plans for me.
So you held your own little protest, Well, I held it, but
I didn't know the extent of theprotest. See. I think what it

(21:53):
was at that time within that coachingstaff was let him just do what he
wants to do, and if hewants to take a knee and he's not
interested in going and running and doinganything else and trying. Then that's fine,
let's let him. And I didit, and I what I did
on after practice. I convinced them, like I didn't hear at Colora,
we'll get to this Coloro State.Thing is that I want to bag of

(22:15):
balls. I'm just gonna throw.We had indoor, you know facilities,
very nice facilities. At that time. I lived across the dorms and I
would enlist my friends, my suitetmates to go and catch balls. And
they again, they thought I wasa wacko because it was like this,
like, okay, you're throwing balls. I mean I literally was throwing balls
to my friends or throwing balls atobjects because nobody would coach me. It

(22:36):
was just really strange. But tome, it didn't phaze me at that
time. It just is that's fine. I'm just gonna go do what I
know innately I can do. SoI'm sitting here teaching myself to throw because
I was on refined. I ranyou know, a pretty much an option
based offense. Right. I threwthe ball limited in high school and I
didn't have coaches that were quarterback centric. It was about developing a quarterbacks.

(23:00):
It was very strict in high schoolfor me, and again it wasn't about
building Bradley up. It was aboutwinning games. So when I was in
college, you know, I wason refined So the concept of me throwing
footballs at objects was like, Igot to train myself because I started feeling
no one's going to train me.So typically you would have had at that
time, especially through high school,you would have you would have had somebody

(23:21):
helping you, helping you out,or you'd be going somewhere. I didn't
have that. And my dad livedin Michigan when I was in high school,
so my dad was around, buthe wasn't around. Yeah. I
was raised by my mother, andmy mom was busy, a single mom,
and she wasn't by any means.It's not something she's gonna think about.
We had there are three brothers,there's four of us. You know,
survival was the most important thing atthat time because things were tough.
It wasn't about training Bradley. Bradley'sdoing just fine. You know, we

(23:45):
have other brothers right that were neededattention that weren't the alphas. Yeah,
they weren't. They weren't the alpha. Well, you know guys that could
barely get through high You know,people that weren't scholastically engaged and they were
getting in trouble with the law,people that were doing things they should have
have been doing. That wasn't mycase. Again, I was not simple,
but you didn't have to worry aboutme at that time, and there's
other my brothers that you needed toworry about. So the idea of getting

(24:07):
Bradley coaching at that time was justnot even considered. And for me,
it was interesting in hindsight thinking tomy father, Well, what did my
dad kind of I think started thinkingabout that. But I believed he thought
in college I was going to getcoaching, like someone was going to come
in college and be like, Hey, this is what we're going to do.
And my dad was probably, i'dsay, mentally, just not recause

(24:29):
I think he had CTE. Myfather passed away, So again on a
tangent, because we'und my father.I know he suffered greatly from you know
what you see a lot of formerNFL players did, so I don't think
my father was also thinking things clearlymentally probably not. Yeah, definitely,
there's that's a whole nother podcast,because oh, there's so much to that
there is, and my mom wasalways very vocal and to the point where
she alienated a lot of people becausethe man she knew and met as a

(24:52):
freshman in college is not the manthat she was seen in the thirties in
his thirties. Right, It's toughfor the people who who are going through
it and then the people who arewith them. It's also very, very
very tough. Yes, yea.And in an error where there was denial,
yeah, nobody talked to Oh mygod and talked about it. Is
that if you did bring it up, you were the one. You're an
outcast. And so my mom itwas really tough with my mom because I

(25:15):
think family, my dad's family,friends saw my mom as someone that was
creating stuff and she's right, toobad. Oh it's horrible, and I
look at it now and I've I'vevoiced my opinion to some of these people
too, because they've never apologized,right for maybe some of their behavior.
But back to my father and thisidea, so I didn't have coaching,
go back to Michigan State. Soteaching yourself how to hit target, I

(25:36):
am And people thought again, it'slike, oh, that's cute. Bradley
can go do it all he wants, all he wants, right, no
big deal all day, it doesn'tmatter. You know. He's again doesn't
stay on campus. But again goodhe's doing. He's an engineering doing very
well. Don't have to worry aboutthis guy. There's a lot of other
people in that freshman class we shouldworry about. She should worry about Van
pell Man. Pel is doing hisown thing. And that was that until

(25:56):
Nick Saban left to LSU, wentto Elis, right, yeah, he
did. He left before a bowlgame and we played Florida and Citrus Bowl,
and the interim coach got named BobbyWilliams, who was the running backs
coach. You know, he tookthe helm. And again this was the
end of the season. We goto the Citrus Bowl, we beat Florida.
I mean, we had just agreat team and it was really cool

(26:18):
to see these huge athletes that I'ma part of now going Wow, in
a couple of years, I'm goingto be doing that. I am where
I need to be. That's kindof how I felt in Things deteriorate very
quickly once Nick Saban left. Okay, and was that because a new coach
came in or just because you sawwriting on the wall of where you were
going to be well. So Ithink accumulation of a few things Nick Saban

(26:40):
leaving the end of the season,and when you go into an off season,
that's when you address things that needto be addressed going into a new
season. So this concept about whatare we gonna do with mpelt right,
you know, it was a bigconsideration. Because my dad's a big All
American. There's a lot of questionwho's going to beat quarterbacks? And because
you're five in the country. Imean, you've got some really talented quarterbacks

(27:00):
and staff and Van Pelt's not talented. Did you see him throw a ball?
I don't think he can throw aspiral. And this was even if
I was thrown at targets. Again, you know, when you have bad
mechanics and you have no coaching,what you're only doing is you're just reinforcing
back what you know. You're doingwhat you know, which is really and
so. But for me it wasbut I'm doing something right. They sat

(27:21):
me down and the way I rememberit, and it might be different,
but again, I'm pretty good.I don't I don't lie. There's no
point in lying in life right forme is they basically said, cut the
shit. You're not gonna play quarterbackhere, and if you want to play
football, you're gonna be like yourdad. And again my dad started as
quarterback and end up being an AllAmerican free safety and still the last defensive
player to win the Maxwell Award.Like, you're gonna be like your dad,
and you're gonna have a great careerand you're gonna be an All American.

(27:42):
And I said, oh, that'sgreat, that's not my plan,
and things to cheery because that waswhen it was very obvious that they were
not gonna accept me sitting there takingthe knee. They knew I was talented,
and you know you're gonna play football, and I said, no,
I'm not going to play that notthe way you want me to know.
Yeah, And that was unfortunate becausethey called a medium with my father.

(28:06):
My father comes in and they basicallylied to him, but basically said,
you know the reason why he can'tplay quarterback is he can't even follow a
script on Scout team. You sayto throw here, he can't throw here.
And I'm sitting there going I didn'teven play Scout. I mean my
dad knew this. I go,they're lying. It's not like, hey,
he just doesn't have the talent.I mean he's up against you know,
Ryan Van Dyke, he's up againstJoe Smoker, like they're just going
to be better than him. Theargument was he's almost stupid. He can't

(28:30):
play quarterback because he and I andI took this, so I took this
very This was when it really waslike, okay, lastraw, lastral,
because that time, I'm blown awaybecause this wasn't Nick Saban, by the
way, And I don't think NickSaban would have handled it that way.
I think he would have called mydad in and he knew my dad personally
because he was on the staff ofBill Belichick in eighty six Browns, which
my dad was on the eighty sixBrowns John Elway the Drive, Yeah,

(28:53):
your dad was on that one.Yeah, there's a good story. There's
good stories to this, right,So that's what's neat about some of this
early life for me. But mydad looked at me and after the meeting
and we talked and I just saidand he kind of knew it. I
was like, this is just alie. And this was Bobby Williams head
coach who just took the program justin the worst direction possible. Really was
a black eye from Michigan State.But I was one of the many that

(29:17):
ended up just getting caught in Ithink a horrible person because he didn't use
any truth, you know. Heused lies basically to try to get people.
So that was my dad, andso it was like, Okay,
I got to ask for a release. And this is a big thing for
my father and me because this wasmy destiny. I'm at Michigan State,
I'm on this team. We're thefifth in the nation. This is what

(29:37):
we've always been thinking. Now,we haven't talked about it, my dad
and I because we had brothers,right, it was like I was just
one of his kids. He agreedthat we need to leave, and I
mean my dad lived in Michigan atthe time, and it was like,
you know, it was hard forme, but we had to do it.
I didn't have anyone else to turnto. We figured, well,
what school and remember I was recruited, but I didn't let myself recruited.
So we had no contacts at schools, literally no contact up for San Diego

(30:00):
State, they said, for SanDio State, and at that time,
I think, you know, Iwent to Michigan State Big ten. I'm
not going to go back. No, we're going to find another big school.
I'm going to a big school.So we had to we had to
like get tapes together. And thiswas old VHS's right before DVDs. Like
this was make it a compilation ofold school old taped together old school.
It was like, now I needto go and create attention for myself.

(30:22):
The tables that switched. My dad, who was pretty good, you know,
always like technology, especially on oldschool technology, said okay, I'm
gonna I'm gonna do this. Sowe got all these tapes from high school.
And because you had no film atMichigan's State film and if anyone called
Michigan State right or knew Nick Sabanor anyone in the staff, hey Van
pelt Haw, dude, I'm sorry, he can't throw, he can't play

(30:42):
again. In hindsight, I understandhow these things worked out, but I
didn't understand at that time. Thisis how people get railroaded. This is
how a lot of talented athletes getstuck in horrible positions. Luckily, for
me, I was persistent. Thepersistency lasted for years and we'll get to
this here at Coloro State. Butbecause it wasn't easy, as you know
when I arrived here, but wehad to figure out, Okay, where

(31:03):
am I going to go? Ineeded to transfer. I needed to first
get released. The whole concept ofgetting released from Michigan State wasn't easy because
you're also on scholarship and you haveto finish your season right, and if
you're an All American son, andnow Bradley Van Pelt's leaving, what went
wrong? Right? It wasn't somuch that what's the story? So they
fought pretty hard not to release me, and eventually they released me after another

(31:26):
meeting we had in the coach's office. And then this is a great story.
And again these are stories you've neverheard, and I've never shared much
private. People know these stories becauseit's the truth. I'm leaving. I
remember this because it was so impactfulfor me. His name was coach Morris
Watts. I was walking out thedoor of the football building. I didn't
know anyone was trailing me, andhe walked out after me. His words

(31:48):
were, what do you think you'regonna go? Be a quarterback for the
Green Bay Packers? I turned aroundalmost like is this like your last ditch
effort to say I suck. I'mleaving because I think I'm gonna be a
quarterback the Green Bay Packers. AndI was kind of strange because this is
like childhood, right, this guyhe was in his sixties and he's sitting
here trying to intimidate me. Itis so awkward, right because again it's

(32:14):
I'm a kid. I'm eighteen.Necessary it is that to a kid,
but this is but it just gotme more determined. I mean so at
this time, now I'm going,I'm like pissed now and I was not
an angry guy, and I'm likegoing, this is so strange. So
I left and I never forgot it, and I said, okay, it's
done. Like here's a guy nowin trying to intimidate my coach, my
offensive coordinator because I think for him, again, it was tough. Now,

(32:35):
I didn't have a lot of interest. Frankly, I had a lot
of interest to go be an athleteat a lot of schools. I could
have probably gone to any school Iwanted. They would have taken me as
a transfer an athlete. An athleteis not going to defense. Defense.
Yeah, the only school. Andthis is concluding CU, right, this
is including UCLA. I mean thattime was what we chose states. So
what I looked at is I said, what state, not what school,

(32:57):
what state would you want to livein? Because because I knew I was
gonna have to sit out a yearand this was a big risk. If
you're going to go to a schooland things don't turn out the way you
want, where do you want tolive? Yeah, and this is hard
as a nineteen year old because youknow you're sitting there thinking, jeez,
I guess something could happen. Butokay, what state? So we decided
on California, Washington, and Colorado, and it might have been Arizona as

(33:19):
well. Was kind of proximity betweenfamilies, and yeah, it could have
been proximity. But just like likelifestyle, like where do I Bradley and
I didn't talk about Florida, totalk about Boston, didn't talk about Nebraska,
none of that. So we wesent my dad, we got these
videos, and we sent it tothose schools in those states. That's how
it worked, really, and oneof the schools was Calorao State. Now
I don't recall it must have beenmy father because I didn't know really much

(33:43):
of Caloraio State outside that they beatMichigan State. And I remember watching that
game, but going, how doesMichigan State lose to Colorado State? Literally
is watching with my buddy in highschool, fell asleep, woke up on
his couch, Trice is you know, high school stuff, and found out
Michigan State lost Calil State And Iwas blown away. What's the school?
That was my only only recollection ofcalor State. I didn't know Carrol State

(34:04):
was, but carl State came backto my father and outside of other schools,
we got responses from everyone, butit was the only school. We'll
take you as a quarterback. Butand there's a butt to this, right
or an and you could say.And they were smart because all they had
to say was we'll take you asa quarterback because they knew, they well
they it was recruiting. I thinkI think they knew. I think Sonny
and the team, because I'm surethey recruited me in high school. But

(34:27):
there was just you know, itwasn't on my radar, and they didn't
get any response because I had nocontact with anyone at all, and I
know my family didn't either, butto get a kid in just to the
program. Once he's in the program, he's in the program. Yeah.
Absolutely, And that was the geniusof the staff at that time. Hey,
we're going to get someone right that'stalented. If he wants to play
quarterback, just tell him he canplay quarterback, right, Just get him

(34:51):
in here, right, get himin here, provide the smoking mirror exactly.
And when he gets here, youknow, we will see if he
can play quarterback. But if hecan't play quarterback, we just got another
great athlete. Well, let's hedgeour bets because that's what we need here.
I get it now because all theplayers they had here were very successful.
But we need people at this schoolthat are looking to play football that,
for some reason or another didn't workout another school. You know,

(35:14):
some of the best athletes came here. It was not just out of peer
recruiting. I don't think it wasout of because again, either props or
they were had something to prove topeople and the only place they can play
with. There's a lot of folksthat have come here with chips on their
shoulder. Yeah, but that's Ithink smart of beauty. It is the
beauty and now that I see.I fit into that mold. I didn't
know at that time, but let'slet's get let's get this kid in and

(35:37):
Sonny being Sonny. That was themagic, right magic. So you sit
out the first year, I sitout, but I'm the Scout team quarterback.
But people knew about you, likethere's already articles about the kid that's
riding his skateboard all around and sunshineand you had the long hair. Yeah,
so I was allowed to play.So the thing is is I have
a year of training at Michigan State. So at least physically, I come
in and I'm bigger than I ever, was faster than I ever was crazy

(36:02):
weight room time, Well yeah itwas. Well. Also were training in
Michigan State. What was happening toois I was getting trained to be a
defender and I didn't know it.Oh so I ended up gaining a lot
of strength and I didn't realize itthat that's how they were training me.
They weren't training me as a quarterback, and I didn't know it because again
I'm there just being a freshman doingwhat I need to do. So I
show up to Carrale State and Iam well advanced for one year, and

(36:28):
I was a Scout team quarterback.And the special thing was is I also
because I was athletic, I playedScout team everything right, so now not
necessarily defense, but on special teams. So when you know we were doing
punk kick and all this stuff.I mean, I remember the Gilmour Twins
would try to cover me, andthese guys were amazing, but they were
trying to double team me on likesay, scout punt and I would literally

(36:52):
break the double team all the time. So coaches started knowing right off the
bat, this guy's talented, likephysically. Now I was also the Scout
team and that's the big thing.The big thing is I actually get to
every day pick up a football andthrow it. I follow a script,
but I'm the quarterback. I amthe Scout team quarterback against the ones on
defense. Right now, the storyreally is also quote Fairchild being ThEC at

(37:15):
the time. It wasn't like Iwas going to eat quarterback training. Bradley
was just had a sandbox. Justlet this guy play in a sandbox,
let him run around. Because Ialso was struggling, right I almost I
was struggling very really hard here.It was very tough for me because there
was other things happening in my life. So I think it led to like,
hey, you know, he's goingoff the rails a little bit,
which is true. But I wasa scout team quarterback. But I was

(37:37):
doing what I wanted to do,so that was going well. That was
the only thing I was going wellat that time was that I was allowed
to play football in school. Icame in with a very high GPA.
I think I was three five,three six, engineering on Michigan State,
and I wasn't going to class.And I could say this now it's twenty
years later. I was seeing somepsychologist. I had a girlfriend that went
to see you, my high schoolgirlfriend, who was still a great person,

(37:59):
my friend, but she was inmy high school, my love,
and I wasn't one to have alot of girlfriends, just my nature.
Now, you know, things werevery different. Now we're in our second
year of college. She's going tosee you very different place, right,
She's doing a lot of different thingsthat Bradley didn't do doesn't do. And
I'm in Colorado State, so Iwas struggling, wasn't going to school.

(38:20):
I was feeling out. Basically,I was feeling out. So we had
some meetings with coach Lubick, andLubick basically was like, look, I
mean cause it was. It wasthe point where I was I was flunking
out. I think at a pointfive, I was an academic probation.
It was on the verge of gettingkicked out of school. Most people don't
get. These are the stories mostpeople wouldn't know. And I was seeing
a psychologist and I was losing it. Like it was the first time in
my life where I felt mentally likeyou're not in control. Something's wrong.

(38:44):
It was a really tough year.And I also think the coaches knew this.
And I don't want to say theyweren't training me to be quarterback right
just because did it like me.It was more of like something's going on
and we don't know if we cancontrol a situation. It's going to be
up to Bradley to get himself outof this. So we continued through the
season into off season. Things werekind of rough, right, they were

(39:06):
still rough, And the thing wasbasically, you got to go to summer
school and you're going to spend timetraining here, staying in Fort Collins,
going to summer school, getting offof academic probation. That was the big
thing at that time. It wasn'teven about football. It was just like
what happened to you? You know, you come in with this amazing GPA
and engineering and now you're flunking outof school. What's going on again?

(39:28):
Going in hindsight, when you lookback, I knew there was still these
tough conversations that you had within thissystem because you know, you had Steve
Cutliff, if you remember, hewas all Colorado w with zone set of
problems, but you still was onthe team at that time. You had
Dj Bush highly recruited out of SanDiego. He was Steve Fairchild's recruit.
All of them were better than Bradley. And that's just the truth. Like

(39:50):
at that time I knew that too, Like there's no question they were better
quarterbacks. Were they better athletes?Were they better winners? No? I
don't believe it. But they weremore refined, They threw a nicer ball.
They were you know, from aquarterback perspective, there were your stereotypical
quarterback. Absolutely there were. Youknow, Dj was taller than me just
through a nice spiral. He wasgroomed. Like, so we got to
have this tough conversation with Bradley,and so I get off acadet probation.

(40:14):
Everything kind of calms down. Isettle down, and we're back now to
football. The idea that I'm youknow, I'm going to fail out of
school is over right, so thatthat kind of scares over. I come
back down, settle down, getback to what I know how to do.
Let's talk about football. At thattime, though, my older brother
passes away and Boulder going into mysophomore year, that's right. Yeah,

(40:36):
and that was tough because I wastraining in summer and there's a whole story
too, it's really sad story.It involved multiple parties and yeah, it
was just a really frank, youknow, I'm gonna say it was a
shitty It was a shitty way itwent down. Yeah, it just it's
not what you want to happen.But what it did to me at that
time was it made me even Iwould say, not more determined, but

(41:00):
it hardened me because it was myfirst huge loss and it could have been
avoided and maybe I felt responsible.But it was tough because now I have
a new element with the coaches.Now we have like of the off the
field stuff but we still have talkabout football with this guy, right,
and we're still at the end ofthe day, he's a football player and
we need to talk about it.And so that was interesting, I think

(41:22):
going into it because Steve Fairchild thenleft to go to the Saint Louis Rams,
I believe, so you had anew kind of development as you had
coach Hammersmith come in and you hadSonny Lubick and let's deal with Vampel.
So back to football. You know, outside of all this, I get
off probation, my brother passes away. There's a lot of off the field
issues, but they're resolved. It'sdone. Football seasons coming up. What's

(41:46):
going to happen? You have DJBush and you have Van Pelt sitting there
wanting to play quarterback. What arewe going to do? Any things were
not settled? Was it better withHammer though? So Dan Hammer Schmidt we
just actually did not long go.It was better, but I wouldn't say
it was a better situation for me. You know, he wasn't a quarterback.

(42:06):
Steve Fairchild was you know, hewasn't a quarterback. He was a
defender. Coach Benton offensive line coach, was a coach offense coordinator. He
was an offense line coach. Soit wasn't better. You still weren't getting
that coaching. No, But thebig thing that happened was Fairchild wasn't there,
so I didn't have probably the numberone person stopping me from mean quarterback.
That's the truth. Fair Child wasthe offensive coordinator my sophomore year.

(42:30):
Bradley Vampelt would have not probably beena ram or. He would have never
played quarterback. Wow, just howit is. I'm sure he would speak
of it differently, but I don'tneed to lie. I know he was
not someone that was He probably thoughtit'd be highly as an athlete, but
as a quarterback. No. Andhe wasn't going to spend the time training
me. Yeah, dj Bush,Look at this guy six' four.
There was a tight spiral left forprototype. Prototype. Yeah, we're gonna

(42:52):
run it. We're not gonna wastetime. I don't have time with the
van Pelt. By the way,he doesn't have coaching. It's too late.
That's why I don't call these coachescoaches because so few of them coach.
And I can go on and on, and these people I've met that
are highly touted in the NFL herethey shouldn't be in coaches. So you
know, Steve Fairchild didn't coach me. He is a coach, he didn't
coach me, so I wouldn't callhim a coach for me, but I

(43:13):
do give him respect because you know, he was on the staff and he
had some success, but by nomeans any of my success was attributed to
him. And then Hammer, soHammer was different because he wasn't a roadblock.
Okay, okay, So the bigissue is, look, we got
DJ Bush and vam Pelt. Imean, just guy get ges me on
the field like he doesn't need tobe backup, so they call me in.

(43:34):
And this was only with coach alittle bit. This wasn't like a
staff. It was very different thanMichigan State. This wasn't that's try to
intimidate the kid. So I talkedto him and the idea was, you
can I think they're thinking of KevinMcDougall. They go, you can play
running back because I think they knewI didn't really want to play defense,
so they were thinking on like whatcan we do to use his athletic skills
play running back? You can besidesto be a quarterback because Bradley, You're

(43:58):
not the starter. You know it, and I knew it. And you're
not going to be the starter,I think, he said in nice words,
and even they brought it up basicallylike your skill set is not going
to work, kind of like youknow, coming off of Matt Noon to
Success, like it's just not gonnawork. And I said, hey,
thank you for your suggestions. I'mgoing to remain a quarterback. I came
here to play quarterback. That's whatyou brought me here for. And Coach

(44:19):
Lubick had the wherewithal and the wisdomto say, Okay, we will let
you play quarterback as long as you'reokay with not playing basically, and I
said, yep, I'm a quarterback. Okay, done. Van Pelt's backup,
he's a quarterback, but I'm abackup, no problem. And I
was fine with that. And Iremember going in the CUCSU game, think

(44:42):
I threw like the biggest duck ofmy I mean, so I played a
couple snaps in the game, andit was probably the worst game of my
life because you know, I justhadn't really been primed for any of this
and hadn't been coached. And butthat's fine. Look, you know,
I'm a quarterback, and so yeah, that's just how it was. And
I took a knee. And Ithink a lot of the coaches might not
want to be as truthful. Ithink a lot of people didn't like it
because it was a wasted talent sittinghere obviously on the field, running around

(45:05):
against anyone else. Right here isthat he should be playing something now,
not d line or a lot obviously, but any of these other other skill
positions, another skill. We havea top talented guy and he's taking a
knee. But they didn't break me, right, they didn't try to like
break and coach Lubick, who's areal coach, right, had the wisdom
to just say no, just lethim do it. When does the switch
finally happen? Switch happens? Actually, I want to say in the third

(45:27):
or fourth game. DJ Bush getspulled in the second quarter or third quarter
and they put in Van Pelt.I almost came back and won the game.
It was I have to watch afilm. I don't, really,
I don't watch any of my oldfilm the never have. Actually it's really
very yeah, I don't. Ijust watched the first film in twenty years.
This is what's funny when mom andchildren bring up, oh daddy,

(45:50):
right that I watched the game andit was against Mexico my senior year,
and it just didn't make me feelgood because it brings up a lot of
other issues that I have with football. So but so anyways, I'm going
back, and so what happened wasis I believe I came back. I
almost won the game, and thatwas a sign to the coaches and I
don't know who I'd have to andI don't even know if they remember.
I don't know who. But Iwant a tribute to Sonny because knowing coach

(46:14):
Lubick and just having his gut feelingwe're going into Wyoming the next week,
and they said Bradley's gonna be thestarter. So this was a big deal.
Almost brings down. It's getting tearyeyed because I remember, you know,
this was such a big deal formy father and my friends because I'm
going to start a game and youknow, against all odds, you know,
kind of it's a good story becauseagain, nobody was still training me.

(46:37):
I was just well, yeah,and I was I was sitting there.
You know. We we go beatWyoming and I don't have a great
game. I don't throw the ballright. But we beat Wyoming. I
ran a touchdown and still one ofthese iconic pictures I have that made it.
But we beat Wyoming. I won, and then I was the starter
from then on. Now there wasa lot of people trying not to get

(46:58):
me to play because you had JustinHolland coming in. But I was now
the starter. I won some games. Who went to the New Orleans Bowl
again, super unrefined, you know, very kind of questionable, But I
was the starter. I won somegames. We went down and we won
a bowl game, and that wasthe momentum I needed to at least force
people to truly allow me to playquarterback. What's interesting is you talk about

(47:22):
not being refined, yet you nevergave off that persona. You just always
had so much confidence. You justoozed confidence, and I think people started
to roll with it, like,well, Bradley's just going to take care
of it. You're a two timeMountain West Player of the Year. You
start getting these accolades, and thenwhen you beat CU and things start happening.
But to hear you say, youknow, I wasn't refined, and

(47:43):
I mean, but it never seemedto waver in your mind of what you
were going to do well because winningsand I always thought early on statistics are
for losers. So I took thiskind of mental outlook where I don't care
what I throw for fifty percent,sixty five percent to tie downs and it
doesn't matter did we win. Andthat's where it actually the concept of winning

(48:04):
really took hold for me. Youknow. Also, when I went into
the off seasons right with coach Hammerschmidtand coach Benton, he still don't coached
me. I had a net.And so one of the good stories of
people at the time knew is Igot the team buy me a net,
literally a net that put up inan old soccer goal, and I would
go with footballs and I would throwin just like Michigan State and they had
circles and I would just throw intothe net. And anyone that was a
part of the program at that timeknew I did the exact same thing.

(48:27):
If you're not going to coach me, I'm going to keep throwing footballs and
literally I don't care. Now That'swhere I say on refines, because no
one was out there being like,hey, mechanics are bad, but let's
work on this. Let's work onyour footwork because I had my footwork was
horrible because coach Hammerschmidt wasn't a quarterbackand he had they had very different dropbacks.
This wasn't pro style whatsoever. Andthat led into my difficulties. You

(48:49):
know, entering the professional ranks ispartly because I always had this fighting this.
I just need coaching and I ain'tgetting it, but I'm going to
learn to win. And so Igot better, not because people are coaching
me. I got better because Iwas putting in the time to do whatever
I could to be bigger, stronger, faster, throw balls and so that
led into my junior year. Andthe junior year was kind of like the

(49:10):
breakups. We beat Virginia and thenwe beat CU and at that time it
was established like, yeah, he'son refined, doesn't matter, we're winning.
We're going with Vanpell And I thinkthat's when I truly believe that's when
coach Lubick was like, don't matterwhat anyone says, he's the quarterback.
Look, we're winning. And youwere kind of the first one to do
that as far as being that guythat ran around so much because you came

(49:32):
before everybody else did, and thenit kind of became the cool thing.
But when you were doing it,it wasn't cool. It wasn't the mobile
quarterback right, That was because youcouldn't throw. That was always the knock
right your mobile because you can't throw. This idea of play action and throwing
on the run. I mean,Jake Plumber was doing it, and I
found that out later when I gotto go with Jake and the Broncos.

(49:52):
But yeah, it was kind ofit was a different style and they were
using me differently because again, theconcept was about winning at that time.
It wasn't about we're making an fullquarterback. It was we're winning games.
This is what we need to do. And I fell right into it.
At that time, I gave up, you know, even worried about getting
coached because I was the quarterback.Now I was winning, and that's when

(50:13):
the good time started coming. Andit was that junior year when I was
established. It wasn't by again,refined, wasn't perfect, but things were
like here. It is a lotof the naysayers the stuff happened at Michigan
State. All my old teammates aroundwere just like, dude, we're watching
Vampelt Thursday night. Look what he'sdoing. Like, things were kind of
off the charts at that time,and it was a feel good because my
dad was around and it was likeI'm back on track, and you know,

(50:35):
school was going okay, and therewas no impediments in life. It
was just like, let's go,let's see how far we can take this
for better or worse. Right,I think I could have used maybe a
little more kind of you know,guardrails, but you know, but they
let you kind of go. Theylet me go, and yeah, and
it worked. It worked for everyone. So that's how it all came to
be. And then that junior year, and luckily for me, Justin Holland
was young, and he I thinkwas told like you just have to wait

(50:59):
your turn, because I think hewas promised he's gonna come here and just
like overtake Vampell because he came inmy sophomore year, but he wasn't necessarily
backup. I was the backup,so I'm the one that got to go
in after DJ and I think thatwas hard for Justin, but he fell
in line with it and I didn'thave to worry about getting replaced right at
that time. It doesn't mean thatit's the way it finished, right,

(51:19):
But at that time it was like, let's just let's roll with it.
So in your career at CSU,you almost hit three thousand yards passing and
a thousand yards rushing your senior year. Yeah, almost did that. I
should have done it. I arguablyjust a few hundred short. Yeah,
it would have been a big record. Yeah, And that would have been
a very NCAA prominent record. AndI think it's unfortunate. And I thought
about this when I years ago,and don't talk about it because it sounds

(51:42):
very selfish, but there's no reasonwhy I shouldn't have. And I got
taken out several times, right forprobably good reason. You know. This
was coach Hammerschmidtz and in the waycoach Lubick's you know, way to try
to control me, because at thattime I probably did because I was I
was a little a little out ofcontrol, but again not in a bad
way and not come out there doinghorrible things. But I think if I
would have just been left to play, I would have broke more records and

(52:04):
it would have been really significant formyself, especially when you look back and
be like, yeah, not tomany people have done that and I should
have done it, but it didn'twork the way it should have been.
But yeah, I had a prettygood sceniory season, but very lackluster.
Frankly, very lackluster. You thinkI know it. I watched the films.
I wasn't as focused. I wasn'tgetting the coaching. You know,
I say coaching from a quarterback perspective. We didn't have the best scheme,

(52:27):
you know. Frankly, we didn'thave you know, offensive masterminds. And
we can get into what I thoughtwas the demise of Coloradle State, at
least from an offensive perspective. Butthat was the beginning of it. Is
you have coach Fairchild left right,you have people that are very offensive centric,
and then you kind of get intothis, well, you have an
offensive co coordinators right that are defensiveback coach and an O line and you
don't really have a mastermind. Youdon't have a philosophy, you don't run

(52:51):
a particular offense. You ran likea highbred built around Van Pelt. But
it's not like anything that's you know, very like aggressive or was different,
sure in a good way. WhenI looked at myself. It was I
probably need to be sat down ina good way and just said, look,
you need to focus your senior year. You want to go in the
NFL's what we need to do.I was just like, hey, things
are going good, like people aretalking about the Heisman, like I need

(53:15):
to win and be myself, andI think a little too much of myself
kind of got in the way ofthe season I probably really truly wanted.
Did you think about going into theNFL that senior year? Did you have
those aspirations? Absolutely? I alwayshad that because my dad was an NFL
player, So the aspirations are like, darn wriightce is my destiny. This
is when the kind of the arcatlike it got into like I'm back in
control because for so long I wasn'tin control, But now I felt like

(53:36):
I was in control. But Ialso was getting out of control as well,
because I was losing focus on exactlywhat NFL coaches needed from me and
what they were looking for, becausewhat I was displaying and what I was
giving them was bad signals. Iwasn't doing what I needed to do to
prepare for the NFL. I wasdoing what Bradley wanted to do at that
time, because I think it wasnow it was more of like the release.

(53:59):
I think of many years of kindof pent up frustration and now I
can just be myself and people areallowing me to be myself. Yeah,
but the NFL scouts did not likeyou as yourself because of the way that
you played played and what I wasn'tyou know, I wasn't taking schools seriously,
Might I want to be a quarterback? Right? Even though the concept
of being a defender still was verymuch in people's mind. Sure it was.

(54:21):
It was all the way to draftand beyond. I mean several years
in the NFL, they're still broughtit up. I mean even my third
year. I mean it was broughtup constantly. I'm sure it was because
if you're obviously an athlete, likeand when I was compared against any of
my peers, everyone knew this guyis athletic, he can do a lot
of things, but he just wantsto be quarterback. So I got a
little out of, you know,sink my senior year and I finished the

(54:43):
season we lost. I mean itwas I broke my hand. It was
just a really not the way youwant to leave, and I think that's
unfortunate for me because at that timeI'm the one to blame. No one
else is the one to blame fornot finishing my CSU career the way I
wanted to and not entering the NFLin a good way. He could have
gone out on a better high.Oh. Absolutely. It's probably why I
don't watch a lot of film ofmyself in college is because I super critical

(55:06):
of myself, always have been,especially in hindsight, and I just it
reminds me of a period in mylife where I could have done better and
I wasn't the best self I was. I was still a good person.
Again. I didn't do bad things. I just I had it. I
had it. I was in control, and sometimes when you're too much in
control, you lose control because forsome reason you just think you know more

(55:28):
than you do. And that washow I ended my CSO career well.
And I go back to the storyI told at the beginning with Sonny Lubick,
and we do the show and hewas like, I have to go
make sure that I can get Bradley. So he shows up. Love the
guy, but I just don't knowif he'll be here and we were all
like pins and needles to make surethat you were there. And that's actually
how I lived my life, andit happened to waive even my rookie mini

(55:50):
camp like it. That was arepeating story, and that I was unpredictable.
Again, not in a bad way. I don't want to make that
I was doing these you know,far off you know, weird things.
No, you aren't going Johnny Manziel, No, I wasn't. I didn't
have mental issues. I just was. I was being myself and I didn't
have a lot of self control atthat time. And because the way my
family structure was and my mentors,it wasn't like I was very grounded.

(56:14):
So I was losing being grounded.You weren't always held accountable. Yeah,
that's a good way to put it. Yes, I wasn't. And if
I was trying to be held accountable, I wasn't getting the message. So
I wasn't getting the message clear enoughto where someone sat me down and said,
look, you either can go thisroute or this route, but if
you keep going there, you're goingin the wrong route. And yeah,
I didn't have that. I maybeyou didn't want to hear at that time

(56:34):
either, and sometimes you can dojust enough to where people go, oh,
that's just Bradley. I was allowedto be myself. You're allowed to
be you. Yeah. And that'sthe wrap on Part one with Bradley Van
Pelt. Be sure to check outPart two for more wild stories about his
time in the NFL and what he'sdoing now. New episodes of Cut,
Traded, Fired, Retired come outevery Tuesday. Please follow and download this
podcast wherever you listen to podcasts,and keep up on new releases by following

(56:58):
on Twitter and Instagram at CTO ourPodcast and also on the website ctfurpodcast dot
com. I'm your host, SusieWargen. To find out more about me,
visit Susi worgin dot com. Thanksfor checking out this episode, and
until next time, please be careful, be safe, and be kind. Take care