The Sam Bradford Era at Rams Park officially began at 2:53 p.m. Saturday, when the No. 1 overall pick in the draft and newly minted multimillionaire strolled by himself onto the practice field, pulled on his blue helmet with the gold horns and started stretching.

Bradford, who signed a six-year, $78 million contract less than an hour earlier, was warming up for his first real NFL training camp practice with the St. Louis Rams. That the paperwork finally was complete and he was there for the initial full-squad session came as a great relief, he said later.

"You have absolutely no idea," he said. "It’s probably been the biggest relief since draft night. To have the contract done, I just felt like there was a huge weight off my shoulders."

The waiting, Bradford conceded, was difficult. "That’s what was really nerve-wracking," he said. Agent Tom Condon "would tell me, ‘We’re getting ready to go into a meeting. I’ll call you afterwards.’ And it would be four or five hours and I’m doing nothing but looking at the phone. . . .

"Then five hours would go by and I wouldn’t hear anything and then he’d call and be like, ‘Maybe tomorrow.’ That was really frustrating at times.”

Bradford worked mostly with the No. 2 offense Saturday, although he took a few snaps with the first unit.

"It was great," Bradford said. "I felt very comfortable, more comfortable than I did during OTAs, which is a positive sign after taking four or five weeks off. So I felt like it was a good day today.”