It's taken just 20 career games for NFL scouts to suggest Josh Rosen might lack the requisite love for the game of football, and the UCLA junior quarterback has grown tired of the questioning. He's also one to speak his mind, and he did just that on the topic of his commitment to the sport.
"I don't love the game? Really?" Rosen told Bleacher Report in an interview posted on Tuesday. "If I didn't love the game, I wouldn't be out here getting my ass kicked."
Rosen enters his junior season this fall, potentially his last as a Bruin (if he elects to apply for early draft eligibility), with something to prove. His sophomore year ended with surgery on his throwing shoulder, so scouts will be anxious to evaluate him from a physical standpoint, but his mental makeup will be closely scrutinized, as well.
He doesn't deny having aspirations well beyond being a professional athlete.
"When I'm finished with football, I want a seamless transition to life and work and what I've dreamed about doing all my life. I want to own the world," he said.
But he's also had enough of the notion that the game doesn't mean enough to him.
"I don't know why scouts] say things like that. Because I speak about things other than football? Come on. I want to play 15 years in the NFL. I want to be great. I want my team to be great, to win championships," Rosen said. "[Tom Brady might be able to play three or four more years. That's ridiculous to even think about, and that's the bar. I'll play in the NFL as long as they'll have me, as long as I'm physically able to play. Is that love of the game?"
Mental makeup is certainly a key element for a franchise quarterback in the NFL, and Rosen has drawn criticism in that regard, even beyond his commitment to the game. One NFL personnel man has described Rosen as having an attitude of entitlement. NFL.com analyst Bucky Brooks has confirmed scouting concerns about his "prickly personality."
In other words, Rosen has more to prove this fall than his healthy return from shoulder surgery.
Rest assured, he won't be shy to talk about it.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.
