Thank you, Juan Castillo.
What we have here are two men who share a common bond. They are the good soldiers, loyal almost to a fault, in it to the end because it is part of their nature.
Tom Bradley, known as "Scrap" from his cornerback days, demonstrated grace and class in the two months he spent in the role of reliever, even as those occasional tremors rocked the Valley.
Juan Castillo, who was switched from a virtual lifetime spent on one side of the football to the other, did not yelp at Reid: "What, have you totally lost all touch with reality?" No, he soldiered on. The switch was every bit the catastrophe that had been predicted, with a crumb of consolation over the last four games. But they did improve, fool's gold or not.
Tom Bradley is a Penn State lifer, and doesn't that sound familiar? On Nov. 9, he was anointed interim coach of a football franchise that generates tens of millions of dollars, that supports 28 other sports, that is crowingly proud of itself, and that now has set about the daunting process of resurrecting its good name. Scrap was the point man, and now hands off to Bill O'Brien, about whom we know precious little. His hiring may turn out to be a stroke of genius or a regrettable choice.
As for Scrap, he did yeoman work. He showed a football team how to get through the briar patch of scandal, to keep its focus, to look out for each other. Together, they rode out the big waves.
