Background
From Tempe to Green Bay to Chino
Carl grew up in Norco, twenty minutes from where this gym now stands, and played linebacker at Arizona State from 2011 to 2013. Across 39 games he put up 43 tackles for loss and 21 sacks — the kind of production that comes from beating an offensive lineman, not from waiting for the ball to arrive.
His 2012 season was the peak: 81 tackles, 20.5 tackles for loss and 11.5 sacks with three forced fumbles. He followed it as a redshirt junior with 19 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks, helping the Sun Devils to a Pac-12 South title and their first ten-win season since 2007 — and earning First-team All-Pac-12 honors, ASU’s Curley Culp award for outstanding defensive lineman, and Bednarik, Lombardi and Butkus award watchlist spots.
He never played a senior season. He declared for the draft with a year of eligibility still on the table, which is a decision only a certain kind of player gets to make.
The Packers took him 121st overall in the fourth round of the 2014 NFL Draft. Four seasons in the league followed — Green Bay, San Francisco, Buffalo, Chicago and Cincinnati — then the AAF and the XFL before he hung it up in 2020.
What he learned in those rooms is the part that matters here: the difference between a workout and a program. NFL strength staffs don't hand every player the same session and call it training. They build around position, season, workload and what the athlete's body is telling them that week. That's the standard Carl brought back with him.
He has coached at the high school level, and the athletes in this gym play for school and club teams all week. So he sees both sides of the equation — the athlete under the bar on Tuesday and the same athlete on Friday night. It's why the training here is designed to complement what school and club coaches are already doing rather than compete with it.
The career
What's behind the whistle
154 tackles and six forced fumbles across 39 games. Peak year 2012: 20.5 tackles for loss, 11.5 sacks. First-team All-Pac-12, then out early as a junior.
Declared a year early. Four seasons in the league at linebacker — Green Bay, San Francisco, Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati — then the AAF and XFL.
Twenty-plus years in football, coaching experience at the high school level, and on the floor for every session at Bradford Fitness.
Why it's built this way
Most facilities sell you the founder and hand you an intern.
There is no rotating staff here. The coach your athlete meets on day one is the coach they get every session, every week, for as long as they train. Groups are capped at 16 so that's actually possible.
That constraint is the whole business model. It caps how many athletes can be served, and it's the reason the training can be genuinely individualized inside a group setting — because one person knows every athlete in the room, their sport, their season and their history.
Off the floor
Carl is a devoted Christian, a husband, and a father to two boys and a baby girl. He built this gym in the community he lives in — which is the simplest explanation for why he's the one coaching your kid instead of someone he hired.
Meet him first.
One free session, no commitment. Carl will assess your athlete, talk through their sport and their season, and tell you honestly which program fits — including if that's none of them.