Sam Bradford stood and answered questions. This past Saturday, he said, was the hardest game he'd ever had to sit out.

He was going to announce his plans last week, but Sunday, when he told Bob Stoops he thought he'd be ready to let everybody in by the middle of the week, he misjudged what he still had to process, kind of like the doctors misjudged how long he'd be out of action after separating his shoulder against BYU.

"I thought it would be easier," he said.

Then, almost magically, his teammates appeared behind him. More organic than dramatic, there they were.

Adrian Taylor. Brody Eldridge. Brian Jackson. Adron Tennell. Chris Brown. Dom Franks. Gerald McCoy.

If you'd never watched Sam Bradford pick apart a defense, check into just the right play upon walking up to the line of scrimmage, zip an impossibly accurate pass between tightly-covering defenders where only his guy could reel it in, there was still one more chance to really understand the common royalty of his presence among Sooners like himself.

The last time OU football was carried live on a day other than game day, it was the board of regents meeting in a horribly public way to give John Blake the boot.

Nice to know it could happen again, this time for a favorite son's farewell.

Because that's what it was Monday inside the Switzer Center's Big Red Room.

Bradford said he won't be hiring an agent any time soon and plans to take advantage of the time window he still has (through Jan. 15) to remain vigilant about his plans, meaning he might still return to Oklahoma should a setback occur requiring him to prove himself all over again via one more year in the college game.

Still, that requirement would first require a calamitous confluence of regrettable circumstance.

Here's what's going to happen.

He's going to have surgery.

He's going to rehab.

He will again be 100 percent physically.