The Baldest Truth

Everybody loves a big-time college athlete who chooses Boolah! Boolah! Boolah! over moolah-moolah-moolah.

How loyal of him to stay in school with his buddies instead of wandering out into the cold, cruel world of professional sports. How noble. How heroic.

How shortsighted.

I have my doubts about Jimmy Clausen being good enough to star on Sundays. Nevertheless, if NFL scouts love the Notre Dame quarterback so much that he’ll be a top draft pick next April, he only has one intelligent choice.

Go pro, kid, go pro.

Clausen shouldn’t make the same $80 million mistake Sam Bradford did. He shouldn’t stay in school because it’s fun. I’d give the same advice to Washington QB Jake Locker and any other underclassman who is top-10 material.

They can have plenty of fun in the NFL. If they have to, they can buy fun. They should think about the primary purpose of college: To prepare a young person for life and for the profession he or she wants to enter when the keggers, study halls, hook-ups and final exams are finished.

Bradford is the cautionary tale of all cautionary tales. He probably would have been the first pick in last year’s draft but he decided to stay at Oklahoma because, he said, “My three years here have been probably three of the best years of my life.”

He added: “I really feel that there is no need to cut this experience short.”

Need, no. Reason, yes.

Through the end of last season, the University of Oklahoma experience did for Bradford exactly what it was supposed to do. As the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and a kid generally considered the best QB available, he surely would have received more money than eventual No. 1 pick Matthew Stafford did from the Lions ($41.7 million guaranteed, with a chance to earn as much as $78 million).

Instead, Sam Bradford is damaged goods.

The first shoulder injury, suffered in this season’s opener, probably didn’t hurt his stock for the 2010 draft too much.

When he went down hard on the shoulder again last week, however, it meant only two words to NFL teams:

Injury.

Prone.

Where will Bradford be drafted now? In the middle of the first round, where his guaranteed take probably would be around $10 million? In the second, where he’d be lucky to get half that? In the third, where seven-figure signing bonuses are rare? Later? It’s a distinct possibility, especially if he isn’t in top shape come Combine time in February.

Obviously, when it comes to risk-reward ratios, it’s foolish for a top-tier college football player to delay his pro career.

Yeah, but what about Tim Tebow? Few say he should have left Florida after leading the Gators to last season's mythical title. Apples and oranges, folks. NFL talent evaluators weren’t even sure he had pro QB skills. (In fact, some still aren’t.) Tebow had to return and prove he was worth the high pick and the big bucks.

As for Clausen, he gets lots of ink because he’s at Notre Dame. OK, but did anybody who watched the USC game really believe he was the best QB on the field?

Matt Barkley had better stats, made more big plays and didn’t misfire repeatedly at the end with the game on the line.

The Trojans are 5-0 in Barkley’s starts, 0-1 in the game he missed. He performed superbly at Ohio State and at Notre Dame - giving him two more signature victories in half a season than Clausen has had in three years.

Yet we seldom hear Barkley’s name in the Heisman discussion because he’s a freshman. Clausen, meanwhile, is a Golden Domer. Nuff said.

Reason No. 849 why the Heisman is a sham.

Anyway, if Clausen finishes strongly against the non-USC-type opponents on ND’s remaining schedule, he certainly will be projected as an early draft choice, maybe even No. 1.

If so, he should go.

Why come back for another year under Charlie Weis, whose tutelage neither improved Brady Quinn’s draft status nor made Quinn an instant NFL star?

Cash over co-eds. Sunday's dough over Saturday's show. Moolah over boolah.

Those are the simple economics of football, a violent business in which one play, one hit, one cheap shot, one accidental collision can put a serious dent in a future paycheck or even end a career entirely.

Read Mike Nadel's musings daily at TheBaldestTruth.com.

The Bald Truth

Rip Charlie Weis for being a braggart whose real-world results fall short of his lofty view of himself. Rip him for winning only 10 games in two years. Rip him because Notre Dame gets annihilated just about every time it plays a top-tier opponent. Rip him for his sizable role in making Fighting Irish football increasingly irrelevant.

Just don’t rip him for trying to win a game, OK?

With 2 1/2 minutes left and the Irish leading Michigan by 3, Weis had Jimmy Clausen attempt passes on second-and-10 and third-and-10. The throws fell incomplete, stopping the clock, letting the Wolverines conserve their two time-outs and bringing the fury down on Weis after Michigan rallied to win.

Alums, students, media and other assorted experts wanted to know: How could Tuna Jr. be so stupid?

Of course, had Clausen completed either pass - especially the second, to wide-open Shaquelle Evans - Weis would have been applauded for having the guts to believe in a passing attack that had burned Michigan for 336 yards.

Hey, I know how it works, and so does Weis. It’s the whole coaches-get-too-much-blame/too-much-credit deal. Goes with the gig.

And when you go through an extended period of stinkage, as Mr. Decided Schematic Advantage has in South Bend, you punt away all benefit-of-the-doubt rights.

Look, Notre Dame obviously could find several coaches who’d do better than Charlie Weis has done. And the school probably wouldn’t have to give any of them the kind of 200-year contract Weis wrangled for accomplishing next to nothing.

Still, can’t we try to be at least a little objective here?

Let's say Weis sent his backup tailback (because the starter was hurt) into the line twice, Michigan used time-outs and Notre Dame punted. The Wolverines still would have had well over two minutes to put themselves in position for the tying field goal or winning TD.

In the NFL, that’s lots of time. In college football, with the clock stopping after every first down, it’s an eternity.

Oh, and ND's defense, lousy for most of Weis’ tenure, hadn't exactly been stout to that point.

So Weis didn’t want to see Michigan’s offense take the field again. He trusted Clausen, a third-year starter. He went for the victory.

If you’re a football fan, think about how often you whine about your coach getting too conservative on offense or playing that damn prevent defense while trying to protect a late lead. Why doesn't he just stay aggressive and go with what put him ahead? Why does he play not to lose instead of to win?

Well, Charlie Weis played to win. And the whiners are out in fully force, anyway.

Wouldn’t it be more reasonable to wait for just cause before ripping him a new one?

Odds are, given Tuna Jr.’s track record, the wait won’t be long.

The Balder Truth

"Consistent" isn't a synonym for "good."

Athletes and coaches seem to think it is, saying things such as, “We need to be more consistent,” when what they mean is, “We need to play well for a change.”

I mean, weren’t the 2008 Lions amazingly consistent?

Over the long haul, it's hard to beat the consistency of the Pirates, who haven't sniffed a winning record for 17 years running.

And over the really, really long haul, the Cubs have no equal.

Now wrapping up Year No. 101 of its multi-phase rebuilding plan, Chicago National League Ball Club Inc. is the very definition of consistent.

THE BALDEST TRUTH

In Bear Country, comparing Jay Cutler to Rex Grossman is all the rage. And it’s so unfair.

To Grossman!

In three career starts at Green Bay, he was 39-of-67 (58 percent) for 660 yards, with 3 TDs and 3 INTs - a passer rating of 87.9. Of the three, his worst single-game rating was 68.4. And in 2006, a Super Bowl season for Rex & the Bears, Grossman had a 98.6 rating in the opener at Lambeau Field.

Now let’s review how Bears Savior J.C. fared in the national spotlight Sunday night: 17-of-36 (47 percent), 277 yards, 1 TD, 4 INTs. That’s a rating of 43.2.

Oh, and don’t forgot the most important statistic of all:

Grossman was a perfect 3-0 at Green Bay, Cutler a slightly less-than-perfect 0-1.

Jeesh. You know things are bad when your savior quarterback - the dude who choked down the stretch as the Broncos blew an almost certain division title last year - doesn’t perform even a fraction as well as the guy you couldn’t wait to run out of town.

Read Mike Nadel’s musings daily at TheBaldestTruth.com.