God I love a good standoff. Waco. Tsarnaev. San Diego news teams. And now we have a new entrant into the fray– Sam Bradford and Howie Roseman. Who will blink first? Well, probably Roseman because Bradford’s eyes are doll eyes. But, you know, figuratively, who would win? The ball just entered Roseman’s court, and the GM-turned-office-manager-turned-GM again puffed out his chest and bore down. From the Eagles’ website:

Howie Roseman spoke with Comcast SportsNet’s John Clark after the report [that Sam Bradford wants to be traded] was released and continued to back Bradford.

“I want to reiterate our support for Sam Bradford and go back to our statements last week – that Sam is our starting quarterback,” Roseman said. “His agent and Sam know how we feel about him. These workouts are voluntary. We look forward to seeing Sam again in the near future.”

As a follow-up question, Roseman was asked if there was concern that Bradford will not show up for the mandatory portions of the offseason program.

“No, I think you talk about Sam and what a pro he is,” Roseman said. “Him and his agent, we’ve worked well together for a long period of time. He loves to play the game. We look forward to seeing him soon.”

I see your sleeves and raise you my khakis, that says to me.

Sam Bradford will be paid a lot of money this season – $18 million – and has done little in the NFL to justify the ability to strong-arm his way into a long-term starting role. If he’s that good, he can go out and be a top 5 passer this year and force Carson Wetnz (presumably) to spend at least the first two years of his career on the bench. But mesahthinks Bradford has about the same confidence in his ability to be that guy as most of us do– which is not much! Does it suck that he signed a two-year deal to be the starting quarterback and then watched the Eagles sign a backup to starting money and trade up in the draft TWICE to get a guy coming from FCS football? Yeah, that blows. God that’s gotta be emasculating. Just downright losery. But suck it up. I’m actually with Howie on this one. Somehow if Brett Favre had someone nipping at his heels, it’s OK if Sam Bradford does too. In what world can Bradford think otherwise?

Side note: How much does John Clark work? It’s like a lot, right? Dude works all the time.