Viktor
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- Mar 19, 2019
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Garrett Bradbury is polite, kind and already has established himself as a reliable and hard-working teammate. To the outside eye, he’s not especially outspoken.
But coaches have spoken before about the rookie center’s tenacity and fiery streak on the field, and Andrew Krammer of the Star Tribune recently wrote that it’s a side of Bradbury that will help him re-write the expectations for Minnesota’s offensive line.
When Krammer asked Bradbury about becoming “notorious for starting heated arguments with his North Carolina State teammates,” Bradbury responded, “We can’t do this in one discussion.”
N. C. State strength and conditioning coach Dantonio Burnette told Krammer that Bradbury would often “play devil’s advocate just to get other guys to think a bit.” Krammer wrote:
Example: Bradbury’s claim that LeBron James is better than Michael Jordan, which he’ll back up with anecdotes and analytics alike.
The Charlotte native, with no geographical allegiances to James, said he fell in love with LeBron’s dominance and later grew to appreciate the superstar’s ability to meet towering expectations.
Living up to expectations is now Bradbury’s parallel to his sports hero, but that only surfaced in late April when he became a hot commodity in the draft. He rose from athletic anonymity — a two-star-rated tight end at Charlotte Christian High School — to emerge as a man with a chance to reshape opinions about the Vikings offensive line much as he likes to do in locker room debates.
“He loves going back and forth about different things that go on in the world,” Burnette told Krammer. “He was part of a leadership group, where I had a group that I’d send out information ... He was always one of the guys responding back to it and getting other guys to think outside the box.”