Bradlee Van Pelt (born July 3, 1980) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

and

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to risk management, the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are ...

. He was drafted by the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

in the seventh round of the

2004 NFL Draft The 2004 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 24–25, 2004 at the Theater at ...

, and was also a member of the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division, and play their home ga ...

Bergamo Lions The Bergamo Lions are an American football team from Bergamo, Italy established in 1983 and playing in the Italian Football League. They won the Eurobowl in 2000, 2001 and 2002, while losing to the Vienna Vikings in the finals of 2004 and 2005 Eur ...

in Italy and

Leicester Falcons The Leicester Falcons are an American football team based in Leicester, Leicestershire, England, that competes in the BAFA National Leagues NFC 1 South, the second level of British American football. The club currently operate from the Leicester ...

England. Van Pelt played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

and

Colorado State Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

. He played professionally in the

Italian Football League Italian Football League (IFL) is the top level American football league in Italy established in 1980. History In the 1970's teams formed and played in Italy. In 1980 the first official American football league in Italy was established and crow ...

and in the British League. Van Pelt is currently working for

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

in the United Kingdom as a studio analyst for their NFL programming. He is the son of late NFL

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

Brad Van Pelt Brad Alan Van Pelt (April 5, 1951 – February 17, 2009) was an American football linebacker who played 14 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). A two-time All-American ( 1971, 1972) and the 1972 Maxwell Award winner as college football ...

Early years and college

Van Pelt attended San Marcos High School in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coas ...

, where he played quarterback and safety. There he earned accolades with spots on PrepStar's All-Western and SuperPrep's All-Far West Region Teams and being named a first-team all-state selection as an athlete. In 1998, during his senior season, he completed 89-of-155 passes (.574) for 1,265 yards and 13 touchdowns and rushed for 1,294 yards and 24 TDs; on defense, he had 41 tackles and three interceptions.Bradlee Van Pelt profile
, msuspartans.com, accessed May 9, 2012. Van Pelt originally joined the college program where his father was an All-American, Michigan State. The head coach at the time was

Nick Saban Nicholas Lou Saban Jr. (; born October 31, 1951) is an American football coach who has been the head football coach at the University of Alabama since 2007. Saban previously served as head coach of the National Football League's Miami Dolphins ...

, who departed after Van Pelt's first season to coach

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

. However, after he was pressured to convert from quarterback to

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

, he opted to transfer to Colorado State where he was given the opportunity to play quarterback.Brian Beaupied
BEAUPIED: Bradlee Van Pelt comes full circle, returns to MSU
''The Argus-Press'', September 19, 2010, accessed May 9. 2012. At

Van Pelt was twice named the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

player of the year and managed to throw for nearly 3,000 yards and over 60% completion rate his senior year, and came within 100 yards in passing and rushing of becoming the first collegiate quarterback to pass for 3,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in the same season. In 2005

Vince Young Vincent Paul Young Jr. (born May 18, 1983) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for six seasons. Young was drafted by the Tennessee Titans as the third overall pick in the 2006 NFL Draft, and ...

passed for 3,036 yards and rushed for 1,050.

Professional career

NFL scouts criticized Van Pelt for his "run first, then throw" mentality while playing quarterback for Colorado State. He was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the seventh round of the

, where he spent the next two years as a backup. In the

2006 NFL Draft The 2006 National Football League Draft, the 71st in league history, took place in New York City, New York, at Radio City Music Hall on April 29 and April 30, 2006. For the 27th consecutive year, the draft was telecast on ESPN and ESPN2, with ad ...

, the Broncos drafted Vanderbilt quarterback

Jay Cutler Jay Christopher Cutler (born April 29, 1983) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons, primarily with the Chicago Bears. He played college football for the Van ...

. In training camp, Cutler moved ahead of Van Pelt on the depth chart making Van Pelt the third-string quarterback, behind

Jake Plummer Jason Steven "Jake" Plummer (born December 19, 1974) is a former professional American football player, a quarterback for ten seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Arizona Cardinals in the second round of the 1997 ...

and Cutler. He was released by the

on September 2, 2006. His attempt to make the team was chronicled in Stefan Fatsis's book ''

A Few Seconds of Panic ''A Few Seconds of Panic'' is a nonfiction first-person narrative by Stefan Fatsis, published in 2008. The book chronicles Fatsis, a professional 43-year-old sportswriter working for ''The Wall Street Journal'', and his attempt to play in the Nat ...

''. Van Pelt was then signed by the

on November 27, 2006, to be their third-string quarterback, brought in by his former coach in Denver,

Gary Kubiak Gary Wayne Kubiak (born August 15, 1961) is a former American football coach and quarterback. He served as head coach for the NFL's Houston Texans from 2006 Houston Texans season, 2006 to 2013 Houston Texans season, 2013 and the Denver Broncos f ...

. He was released by the Texans on August 27, 2007. It was announced on March 8, 2009, that Van Pelt would attempt a comeback as a safety with the Broncos, though he failed to make the roster. In late 2009, it was announced that Van Pelt had signed with the

for their 2009 & 2010

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

and

Eurobowl The Eurobowl was the championship final game of a tournament style playoff to determine the champion of all of the American football leagues in Europe. The tournament featured the top or champion clubs from each countries top league that was cal ...

campaigns. He would play quarterback and assist on defense as a safety. At the end of the Italian season in July 2010, he signed to play for the

in the

BAFA Community Leagues The BAFANL (BAFA National Leagues) are the primary American football domestic League competition in Great Britain. The League is run by the British American Football Association to coordinate contact football within England, Scotland and Wales. ...

Division 1 (second highest level league in Britain), leading the team to the Division 1 playoffs. After retiring from football, Van Pelt moved to

, and occasionally provides football commentary for Sky Sports.

References

External links

Bradlee Van Pelt
Michigan State Spartans {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Pelt, Bradlee 1980 births Living people People from Owosso, Michigan Players of American football from Michigan American football quarterbacks American football safeties Colorado State Rams football players Denver Broncos players Houston Texans players American people of Dutch descent American expatriate sportspeople in Italy American expatriate sportspeople in England American expatriate players of American football