Each week during the 2022 regular season, we’re going through the Eagles’ media guide to find an interesting nugget.
The Eagles’ PR interns do a great job filling out these little oddities in the media guide and they serve as a good way to meet the players behind the helmet.
This week, we chatted with linebacker and special teams ace Shaun Bradley.
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Me: It says your first job was at IHOP. Is that right?
Bradley: Yes sir.
Me: What was your job there?
Bradley: I was a busboy. Cleaning dishes, mopping floors, serving the water to tables. That’s about it.
NFL
Me: How old were you when you got it?
Bradley: It was my first job so I was … 18. Just turned 18. End of high school.
Me: So senior year you were doing it?
Bradley: Yup.
Me: How did it work with sports?
Bradley: Once football was over, I grayshirted into college. I came home that first half of the year. I was home because my scholarship didn’t start until 2016. So my dad told me I needed to get a job. He was like find somewhere to go, find something to do. I wasn’t really playing sports, I was taking courses at community college and I was working at IHOP. And then I ended up quitting because obviously I was going to Temple. I ended up losing the job.
Me: Mmhmm.
Bradley: Actually … I got fired.
Me: What did you do? What did you do?
Bradley: Umm. I think, honestly, I think I just didn’t go. I think I had a week left before I went to school. My dad was telling me to go and I just stopped showing up.
Me: So you were gonna quit …
Bradley: Yeah, I was gonna quit anyway. But I just didn’t tell them. I just didn’t come back. (Laughter) I hated it so much, bro.
Me: Did you hate it?
Bradley: I was like, bro, if this is my life, I cannot do it. I cannot do it.
Me: What was the worst part of it?
Bradley: Well, one, I already hated doing dishes because I hated getting my hands with food and all that. I hate that. It’s disgusting to me. And honestly it was just tedious, it was boring. I’m so used to playing football, playing sports, running around, doing stuff, that you’re just back there, sitting there, just waiting. And I’m spraying off dishes and I’m sitting around again. I’m just watching the hours go by and I’m like, ‘I could be doing something else.’
Me: Do you like pancakes?
Bradley: Now, don’t get me wrong: Free food, free pancakes and the drinks, a match.
Me: So it didn’t ruin your liking pancakes?
Bradley: No. Nah, but it ruined my love for IHOP a little bit. I used to go to IHOP a lot when I was little but once I started working there, I’m like, ‘Nahh. I can’t eat this no more.’ But I still like pancakes.
Me: What was it like with the people who were working there? Did they know you were about to go to college?
Bradley: Yeah, but it was funny though. The people in there, there were a few girls I knew that I went to school with in high school, so they were there as well working. And my dad knew the manager, so it was intertwined. So I knew the area.
Me: So you wouldn’t do it again?
Bradley: No. Absolutely not. I would not be a busboy. I would be a host. I could do host, but not with the food, cleaning the floors. I ain’t like it.
Me: Thank you, man.
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