Not that long ago, QB Matt Barkley of the USC Trojans was in the catbird seat. After finishing up his junior season last year, Barkley seemed to have a couple very enviable choices to pick from.
He could have declared for the NFL draft. Whether or not he would have been chosen ahead of guys like Andrew Luck or Robert Griffin III is certainly debatable, but there's little doubt he would have at least been a Top 10 pick. After all, he had finished the 2011 season on a very high note, including beating the always tough Oregon Ducks, in Oregon, then walloping cross town rival UCLA to the tune of 50-0 in the finale. Due to sanctions imposed on USC for things that happened in the past, Barkley and the Trojans weren't eligible for a bowl game. At the time, many NFL prognosticators were saying Barkley was the prototype QB, and was a "can't miss" proposition.
Who knows which team would have drafted him, but SOMEBODY would have, and Barkley would now have millions of dollars in the bank. Even if he didn't become an instant starter, he'd have been financially set for life.
But Barkley chose the other option -- to return to USC for his senior year. That certainly appeared to have its upsides, as well. USC was ranked #1 in some pre-season polls for the 2012 campaign, and Barkley himself was projected as a Heisman hopeful. To boot, consider Barkley's stature at that time. A tall, handsome, blond-haired guy with perfect teeth, that just happened to be the star QB of the football team, with countless millions and untold fame certainly awaiting him. It's probably a fair statement to say that not only was MB the BMOC in Trojanland, but he likely would have had use for a boxcar load of another kind of trojans, to deal with all the exquisite "cuisine" that would volunteer itself for the approval of his palate. That's a pretty sweet gig too for a 21 year old dude in LA.
But, oh my, how things have changed. The USC Trojans went into a tail-spin towards the end of this year, losing 4 out of their last 5. That included the penultimate regular season contest where UCLA not only avenged the beatdown they had received last year, by handily beating USC, but also knocking Barkley out of the game with a shoulder injury. He was not available for the next game against Notre Dame, which the Trojans also lost -- at home.
The words Barkley and Heisman stopped being used in the same sentence months ago. Now, with USC gearing up for a bowl game against Georgia Tech on New Year's Eve, Barkley won't even be playing, because the doctors still don't think his shoulder has sufficiently healed. So he's done -- at least as far as college football is concerned.
That could mean even worse news for Barkley. Pro scouts pay close attention to these sort of things when they report back to their bosses, and pro teams are always very leery when the draft comes around about "damaged goods". Fair or not, few would dispute it's a meat market, and it doesn't matter how good a kid was last year. They not only want to know what he's done lately, but what he can do NOW.
In that respect, Matt Barkley might not exactly be Enron, but his stock has dropped considerably. He went out a loser, and now he has a serious injury that keeps him from playing. It would seem his only chance at redemption will come when the NFL "combine" is held in Indianapolis towards the end of February.
Barkley better hope his shoulder not only totally heals in the next 2 months before the pros put him through all those drills in Indy -- because he's gone from "can't miss" to "show me what you got". The megabucks and fame are no longer guaranteed. Now he has to prove something to even be given a chance.
It may have been the finest of cuisine, but like they say -- there ain't really no such thing as a free lunch.
Somehow, someway, you always wind up paying for it in the end.
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