Carl Bradford

Carl Bradford — former NFL linebacker, founder of Bradford Sports

Carl Bradford is a former NFL linebacker from Norco, California, and the founder of Bradford Sports, a premium headwear brand built in the Inland Empire.

Arizona State

Bradford played linebacker at Arizona State, where he was one of the most disruptive defenders in the Pac-12. He left after his redshirt junior season in 2013 to enter the NFL Draft, and finished his criminal justice degree at ASU.

The league

The Green Bay Packers selected him in the fourth round of the 2014 NFL Draft, 121st overall. He spent four years in the league as an outside and inside linebacker.

Why Bradford Sports exists

Four years around professional football is four years around gear that has to hold up — practice, travel, the grind of a season, and the work nobody films. When Carl built something of his own, the standard came from there: make the hat you would actually reach for every day, and do not cut the corners nobody sees.

That means structured crowns that hold their shape, stitching that survives a season, and colorways that look like something rather than everything. Every hat is designed in the Inland Empire and ships from Southern California.

Driven by Faith, Designed for Greatness

Those five words are printed on the inner taping of every Bradford Sports hat. Not on the front. Not where anyone else can read them. On the inside, where the only person who will ever see them is the person wearing the hat. This is a faith-rooted brand, and that line is the reason it exists — so it lives in the one place that is not marketing.

Norco, and the 909

Carl is from Norco — Horsetown USA — about twenty minutes from where he trains people today. The Inland Empire produces a lot of athletes and does not get put on many hats. Bradford Sports is the one that puts it there.

He is a husband and a father, he has coached high school football, and he still trains athletes in the Inland Empire.

Shop the hats

See all Bradford Sports headwear — four caps and truckers, $38 each, one size adjustable, embroidered in the Inland Empire.

Bradford Western Supply — the newest drop, built out of Norco's Western roots.

The Bradford Golf Club — fifty-two founding members, monthly outings across the Inland Empire.