You probably remember Michael Jordan’s infamous swap to playing professional baseball, but lately it seems more athletes are straying from their original sport.
The National Football League is slowly starting to give the impression that it’s not a terribly safe sport. When you consider the fact that you have large, powerful men in pads slamming full force into each other, it’s not a huge surprise. Adding on to that, you have the whole scandal with the NFL deliberately hiding research that indicated long-term brain damage can occur as a result of injuries sustained while playing football.
Football is the American sport though, so we’ll continue to play and try to come up with new, innovative ways of preventing and treating injuries that do pop up. Today, news came out mentioning that Tony Romo is playing at the AT&T Byron Nelson, good for his second time playing in a PGA event.
Romo has loved golf for years, and has even attempted multiple times to qualify for the event he will be playing in. This includes years that he was still an active NFL player. While he is older now, at 38, it could be argued he could’ve continued playing if he truly desired to. Just take a look at 41 year old Tom Brady, fresh off his whopping sixth Super Bowl win.
Tebow Time
If you want a younger example, look no further than the iconic Tim Tebow. When most think of Tebow, the first thing that comes to mind is the kneeling trend he started. He had an excellent college football career, but that didn’t translate perfectly to professional football. Tim is now playing baseball, not professionally, but for the minor league team of the Mets.
Tebow is looking forward to spring training, and hopes it will be his best yet. He is now playing his 3rd year of baseball, hoping to eventually make it to the major league. Tim is 31 now, but was 29 when he decided to switch to baseball from football. 29 is a prime age to play an sport, not to mention Football. While Tebow’s reasons for leaving football are more related to his inability to excel, it’s still another case of a pro player switching sports.
There is usually a lot of discussion surrounding whether or not a player could do well in another sport. One of the most common names is Lebron James – many think he’d make for an outstanding NFL wide receiver or cornerback. Honestly, he probably would be. At 6’8 and 250 pounds, James is a freakish athlete, who’s body alone would do him wonders in any sport.
For the more “average” professional athlete, that becomes a little more hard to say. Each sport is unique and has different skills and requirements that take years to learn. Being an excellent athlete is helpful, but you need to put in hard work and have some talent to back you up. It’s never a sure thing for an athlete to perform in another sport, but it’s always fun to see people like Romo and Tebow give it a good shot and stick with it.
