Comments on: 4 Star Football Players Who Became Famous for Other Sports

By: Kim

Kim — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:23:00 +0000

Carl Crawford was offered a scholarship to play quarterback at USC, Florida, Oklahoma, as well as a basketball scholarship to UCLA, and actually signed a letter of intent with Nebraska to play football, when he ultimately decided to try baseball after being drafted by the then Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:18:00 +0000

As long as the discussion is branching away from “football + other sport,” let me bring up Tom Glavine. He was a standout hockey prospect as well. He was drafted by the LA Kings (ahead of Brett Hull) in addition to the Atlanta Braves. I seem to remember a picture of him, in his Braves uniform, on skates winding up for a slapshot. I may be just making that up, though. I’ve never been able to find it again.

By: CelticGuy

CelticGuy — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:05:00 +0000

B-Ball Hall of Famer Robert Parish ran cross country at Centenary.

By: Car RamRod

Car RamRod — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:37:00 +0000

Adam Dunn was Peyton Manning’s backup QB at Tennessee.

By: 11Bravo

11Bravo — Thu, 29 May 2008 07:40:04 +0000

Dave Winfield was drafted in 3 sports: football, basketball as well as baseball, Tony Gwynn was drafted in the other Futbol, basketball and baseball Chad Hutchinson, Drew Henson, John Lynch, Ricky Williams, Quincy Carter are among the many pro football players who played pro baseball Henson and Hutchinson spent some time in the majors. Kirk Gibson was a big flanker not a TE at MSU.
I’m from Tidewater and saw Iverson, at Bethel, Brooks and the 2 Vicks at Warwick as well as Curry at Hampton and Iverson had the best instincts of them all.
Both B.J and Justin Upton were solid football prospects, Carl Crawford almost went to Nebraska as a QB, Tony Gonzalez was a good cager at Cal, McNabb and Peppers were decent b-ballers, hurdler Roger Kingdom got as high as 2nd on the depth chart as a FS at Pitt, Montana almost went to Clemson for basketball. Bob Hayes, Ollie Matson, Hershel Walker, Ron Brown are football players who competed in the Olympics, the Cowboys drafted Carl Lewis, Renaldo Nehemiah had a short career with the 49ers, sprinter John Capel had a cup of Gatorade with the Bears, Tommny Smith and Rafer Johnson also had very brief football careers.
I could do this all night if I really thought about it.

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:52:47 +0000

Bo Jackson is the easiest example of (semi) success stories.

Music might not be a sport but how about Lars Ulrich of Metallica kicking butt on the drums and being a very successful tennis player out of California at a young age.

Just goes to show that all athletes should cross train like a madman

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 05 May 2008 06:34:48 +0000

This is going to be a little obscure, but Bob Sapp. He was a defensive lineman for the Washington Huskies and he was drafted by the Chicago Bears. He couldn’t cut it in the NFL, so he went over to Japan and became very successful in K-1. He’s one of the biggest sports stars in the Far East.

By: mlvassallo

mlvassallo — Sat, 03 May 2008 23:15:48 +0000

It isn’t surprising that talented athletes also played football in High School. A lot of the time the most athletically talented kid gets the role of Quarterback or Running Back and in a lot of smaller schools the lack of numbers means kids tend not to specialize in a sport unless they are really destined to pursue it in College and beyond.

By: WHEvansIII

WHEvansIII — Sat, 03 May 2008 16:16:54 +0000

alogicbit:

Since you’re bringing up high school sports legends from the Newport News area of Virginia (Aaron Brooks, Michael Vick, Allen Iverson, and Charlie Ward), allow me to add one that you left out:

Ronald Curry

Didn’t Curry play football and basketball right down the road from Vick? In Hampton, unless I’m mistaken.

By: kolby

kolby — Fri, 02 May 2008 05:31:20 +0000

Jim Elway should ring a bell, although, I believe any Pro Quarterback let alone superbowl/hall of fame quarterback would have the obvious arm strength and accuracy to pitch in high school. What I would really enjoy, is to find a pro who excelled in Cross Country. since that sport doesn’t really translate to any of the major sports in the USA.