Injury will shelve Bloom for entire NFL season

Injury will shelve Bloom for entire NFL season{mosimage}The Philadelphia Eagles placed former freestyle Olympian Jeremy Bloom on injured reserve Tuesday with an injured hamstring, sidelining the fifth-round draft pick for the entire season.

The injury has kept Bloom off the practice field for most of training camp and out of all but one preseason game.

Bloom was a burgeoning star at the University of Colorado before his football career was put on hold by an NCAA ruling. In the fall of 2004, the NCAA said Bloom wasn’t eligible for the football team because he accepted endorsements to keep his successful freestyle skiing career on track.

The 5-foot-9, 172-pound Bloom was picked to try and help the Eagles’ special teams and wide receiver corps. The 147th overall selection, Bloom had 24 receptions for an average of 19.1 yards per catch in two seasons at Colorado. He returned 47 punts at 13.5 yards per return and 25 kickoffs at 25.1 yards per return. He had five touchdowns of 75 yards or more.

With the Eagles, Bloom returned two kickoffs for 45 yards in the preseason.

Bloom finished in sixth place in freestyle moguls at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games and then went to the NFL scouting combine, where he ran a 4.4-second 40-yard dash.

— The Associated Press