As someone who, by chance, has actually had some beers with Tom Bradley, trust me when I tell you it's not all that thrilling of an experience....That is unless you want to talk about Tom Bradley and his experiences all night long - as I was once forced to do.
Don't get me wrong, he had a lot of funny stories about recruiting and coaching under "Joe"; and he played that aw shucks false humility bullshit to a tee.
However, he was very obviously a phony and a bit of a narcissist. Then again, to be fair, I would imagine many people in his position are guilty of the same fault.
Of the other people I was with that night, only one of them came away impressed. You're never going to guess where he went to college?
He kept going on and on and on about how impressive Bradley was and how it was so easy to see how he was a great recruiter and all that nonsense. He then asked me why I would not want him as Pitt's coach?
Before I could answer, another friend, a Holy Cross alum who could not give two shits about college football, chimed in with a thick Bostonian accent, "Oh, knock it off, Chaw-lee. Quit bein' such a High School Ha-wee! That guy was a douche."
His visiting brother concurred, "Total douche."
Me and another buddy just burst into laughter. Soon thereafter, everyone was belly laughing...well, everyone except Charlie. Charlie was PISSED OFF and dismissed it all as jealousy.
That made us all laugh even harder.
The Boston bros were most put off by the fact that Bradley kept accepting beers from us and never offered to pay for a round himself. That part also always made me laugh.
To this day, whenever I'm talking to my buddy, Charlie, I very often slip in a "Knock it off, Chaw-lee. Would ya' quit bein' such a High School Ha-wee?"
He laughs now. Great guy but a massive homer for his alma mater.
