Born in Oklahoma City on November 8, 1987, Sam Bradford was a three-sport athlete at Putnam City North High School. As the Panthers' quarterback, Bradford was a three-year starter, passing for more than 58-hundred yards and 43 touchdowns and helped lead the team to the Class 6A semifinals as a junior.

While not heavily recruited, he took advantage of a scholarship offer from Oklahoma and used his accuracy and poise to lead the Sooners, becoming the starter as a redshirt freshman in 2007. The start of his career at OU couldn't have been much better. He completed 43 of his first 45 passes, including breaking the school record for consecutive completions (22). The Sooners won the Big 12 championship as Bradford passed for a then-NCAA freshman record 36 touchdown passes.

He followed that up by passing for 4,720 yards and 50 touchdowns, becoming the Sooners' fifth Heisman Trophy winner. The Sooners played in the BCS National Championship Game, falling to Florida, 24-14.

His junior season was cut short by surgery after Bradford suffered an injury to his throwing shoulder, first against BYU in the season opener and then again against Texas.

In the 2010 NFL Draft, Bradford was selected by the St. Louis Rams with the first overall pick. He chose to wear the number 8 in honor of Troy Aikman, another former Oklahoma quarterback.

As a rookie, Bradford established NFL rookie records for attempts (590) and completions (354). The Rams finished 7-9 -- a six win improvement from the prior season.

But injuries plagued Bradford in the pros as well. He missed six games in 2011 due to a high ankle sprain. After playing all 16 games in 2012, Bradford's 2013 campaign came to an end after suffering an ACL tear in his left knee in the Rams' seventh game. The same ACL was injured in a 2014 preseason game and caused him to miss the entire season.

Bradford was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles in early 2015 and he was able to rejuvenate his career, playing 29 games over the next two seasons for the Eagles and Minnesota Vikings, passing for a career-high 3,877 yards in 2016 and breaking the single-season record for completion percentage (71.2%).

But injuries again sidelined Bradford in 2017. He played only two games for the Vikings that season and was traded to Arizona in the offseason. The Cardinals began the season 0-3 and Bradford was replaced by rookie Josh Rosen. Midway through the season, Bradford was released.

Bradford retired from pro football with 19,449 yards and 103 touchdowns in 83 games.