Breaking through

Bradley Fletcher’s talent & attitude have caught the eyes of NFL scouts

By JOE SCALZO

Vindicator sports staff

Bradley Fletcher was talking to his former high school basketball coach, Burt Stellers, in Liberty when the topic switched to the upcoming NFL draft.

Fletcher, who had a breakout year for Iowa at cornerback last fall, was coming off strong showings at the East-West Shrine game and February’s NFL combine. His humble personality had come off well in interviews with NFL teams and he knew he’d improved his chances of being drafted this weekend.

“And you know what? He wouldn’t talk about it until I asked him,” said Stellers. “He just said, ‘Coach, I’m just training hard and for some reason my stock is on the rise,’

“And I told him, ‘It’s because you’re not a jerk.’”

Stellers chuckled at the memory, but there’s truth there. Any story about Fletcher is going to include references to his positive attitude, his work ethic, his soft-spoken humility and, after people are done talking about that, his talent.

“He’s an extremely positive person,” said his high school football coach, Jeff Whittaker. “Generally when you have a conversation with Bradley, he’s more interested in how you’re doing.

“That says a lot about his character.”

Fletcher grew up in Cleveland — he would have attended either Glenville or Collinwood — before his family moved to Liberty when he was entering the eighth grade.

He burst on the scene as a sophomore basketball player, scoring 17 straight points in the fourth quarter of a sectional final against Niles. Liberty eventually lost in double overtime, but his 32-point, 12-rebound effort drew everyone’s attention.

Over the next two years, he emerged as one of the Valley’s best football players, too, earning all-state honors in both sports. He redshirted his first season at Iowa, played sparingly as a freshman and lettered his next two seasons with the Hawkeyes.

“He played his first few years, but he wasn’t always in the starting lineup,” added Whittaker. “He had to get frustrated but he never showed that. He’s not the type of guy who says, ‘Oh, I should be starting, the coaches don’t like me, I’m not being treated fairly. ...’

“He just said I need to work harder. These are my weaknesses and this is what I need to improve on.”

Fletcher (6-1, 196) finally broke through as a senior, earning honorable mention all-Big Ten with 60 tackles, three interceptions and 10 passes broken up.

“I was just playing my role as a special teams player and continuing to watch film and get better with footwork,” he said of his first few years at Iowa. “It all paid off during the past year.”

Fletcher’s best performance came in the Outback Bowl against South Carolina, where he had four solo tackles, a forced fumble and an interception in the end zone.

Fletcher then impressed scouts in the East-West game where many felt he was the best defensive back in the game.

At February’s NFL combine, he was one of the top performers at his position with a 38 1/2-inch vertical jump — no surprise to anyone who saw him play basketball — and a 4.47 40-yard dash with 20 reps on the 225-pound bench press.

He lowered his 40 time at his pro day to 4.44 and has a good chance of becoming the first Liberty player to get drafted. He’s visited several teams in recent weeks, including the Jets, Colts, Falcons and Eagles, and has worked out with several other teams.

“I’m not sure exactly what’s gonna happen,” said Fletcher, who is back in Liberty this week. “I’ve been hearing a lot of good things. I’m just continuing to train and get ready.”

Fletcher has always been a gym rat — “If you needed to find Bradley in the offseason, you’d just go down to the park and you’d see him shooting by himself, getting better,” said Stellers — and he never relied solely on his athletic gifts.

“He’s a very good athlete, but all of it didn’t come naturally,” said Whittaker. “He trains an unbelievable number of hours.”

Fletcher is quiet and reserved by nature, easy to coach and even easier to be around, Whittaker said. The coach recalls visiting him at Iowa and getting stopped by school secretaries, who gushed about Fletcher’s attitude.

“They’d say, ‘Oh, he’s such a nice person,’” said Whittaker. “People in the community, coaches, teammates ... they light up when you mention his name.”

Fletcher was also a key figure in Whittaker’s program as the first of nearly a dozen Division I prospects to come through the school in recent years.

That list includes his younger brother Donovan (now at Ohio University) and extends to three Michigan recruits now walking the hallways (seniors Fitzgerald Toussaint and Isaiah Bell and junior Antonio Kinard).

“He kind of started the whole ball rolling,” said Whittaker. “I remember we went down to Iowa on Easter Sunday of his junior year and he decided to commit early. Some other schools tried to entice him a little bit but he followed through with his commitment and I think that opened a lot of doors for different players.

“What coaches like about our athletes is they follow through with their commitments. I think Bradley got a lot of scouts into our building.”

Fletcher, the son of Vicki and Carl Fletcher, graduated last May with a degree in health and sports studies and added a minor in African-American studies last fall.

“He graduated in four years and that’s the thing we’re most proud of,” said Stellers. “I tell everyone, as good of an athlete as he is, he’s a much better person.”

scalzo@vindy.com