Van Pelt's bravado proves doubters wrong

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jul 11, 2006 | by MILO F. BRYANT Gazette Sports columnist

ENGLEWOOD - Bradlee Van Pelt is stubborn.

Point-blank stubborn.

Hopefully, he doesn't change.

Stay stubborn. It's a beautiful thing.

Van Pelt should continue to believe he can be a starting quarterback in the NFL when few others believe it. It's that stubbornness that is going to help Van Pelt answer one of life's greatest questions.

What if?

Those who aren't stubborn hate that question.

What if I had taken that job? What if I'd stuck with that class? What if I had gone on that trip?

Look no further than "What if?" to understand why Van Pelt continues to strive to be a quarterback with the Denver Broncos when so many around him believe he's wasting his time.

Years from now, years after his football career is over, Van Pelt doesn't want to spend time thinking he didn't give himself every opportunity to be an NFL starting quarterback.

Van Pelt knows those thoughts can be annoying. Van Pelt often has heard his father, Brad Van Pelt, talk about what life would have been like had he stuck with being a quarterback.

The elder Van Pelt had a 14-year NFL career, including five Pro Bowl selections at linebacker. Still, there are thoughts about playing quarterback.

Brad enrolled at Michigan State as a quarterback who also played safety. Much like Bradlee, Brad's quarterbacking was effective but unpolished. Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty moved Brad to safety, where he earned two All-America honors and in 1972 became the first player to win the Maxwell Award, recognizing the nation's college player of the year.

The decision was made for Brad back then.

Bradlee is able to make his own decisions.

And, regardless of what anybody else believes, Van Pelt believes he will be an NFL starting quarterback.

"It's one of those things that Bradlee has heard me say a number of times: 'I wonder if. I wonder if,'" Brad said. "Bradlee just doesn't want to wonder. He's going to keep on pushing until he gets that opportunity."

Broncos coach and vice president Mike Shanahan made the chances of that opportunity occurring in Denver seem less likely in April, when he drafted Vanderbilt quarterback Jay Cutler in the first round. When a team trades up four spots in the first round to take a quarterback, incumbent quarterbacks are short-timers.

Jake Plummer is the starting quarterback for now. But drafting Cutler served notice that Shanahan isn't completely happy with Plummer. Cutler's selection also showed the Broncos don't believe Van Pelt is the answer either.

"I can't worry about others," Van Pelt said after a recent minicamp practice. "I can't make decisions. I have to worry about myself and what I can control and that's my effort and my attitude.

"You can control your attitude by knowing that the other stuff is out of your control. I can do nothing but control my own actions, my thoughts. Whatever the coaches have to do, whatever they feel is necessary, that's their job."

Van Pelt can look at this summer in two ways.

He can lament the fact that Cutler, who the Broncos will invest a lot of money in, will get every opportunity to make Shanahan look smart. That includes taking a few practice snaps that might have gone to Van Pelt.

Or he can take an opportunistic approach, a methe-world philosophy.

"I've been the center of attention for a while," Van Pelt said. "I enjoy being an underdog. Being left out, it doesn't bother me.

"If I was to get caught up in what other people thought or what other people wrote and what other people predicted, I would have been gone long ago. I would have never made it through college."

Van Pelt never will have the innate feeling, the poise, pocket presence or any other hackneyed clich for the stereotypical quarterback. But he doesn't need them to be successful.

Van Pelt's physical gifts are abundant. They're what he used to dominate in college and high school. A little more than a year into his NFL career, Van Pelt is learning to use his head.

He's learning how to study film properly in order to understand tendencies and probabilities. His physical training is more efficient. He's finally learning how to be a quarterback.

"I'm just waiting for my opportunity," Van Pelt said. "It may come quick. It may be a long time, but I'm in it for the long run. I'm not going anywhere."

And that's Van Pelt being more stubborn than ever.

Columnist Milo F. Bryant can be reached at 636-0252 ormilo.bryant@gazette.com. Check out Milo's blog, The Extra Milo, at http://milobryant.blogspot.com/