Minnesota Sports Forum

He says he can help a team at 31. Only one person has successfully made the jump from the NBA to the NFL. Anybody know who it was?

longstrangetrip wrote:He says he can help a team at 31. Only one person has successfully made the jump from the NBA to the NFL. Anybody know who it was?

Wasn't John Havlicek supposed to be a great football player too?

I know Bud Grant was on the Lakers. But wasn't he a CFL guy? Did he make it in the NFL?

Nice work, Abe. I don't know about Havlicek, but Grant left the Lakers in 1951 and became a defensive end with the Philadelphia Eagles. He then switched to offense and was second in the league in receiving yards and TDs in 1952. Oddly, the Eagles didn't offer Grant enough money in 1953, so he jumped to the CFL where he spent most of his playing years. What an athlete!

longstrangetrip wrote:Nice work, Abe. I don't know about Havlicek, but Grant left the Lakers in 1951 and became a defensive end with the Philadelphia Eagles. He then switched to offense and was second in the league in receiving yards and TDs in 1952. Oddly, the Eagles didn't offer Grant enough money in 1953, so he jumped to the CFL where he spent most of his playing years. What an athlete!

Interestingly enough, Minnesota has had multiple generations of highly publicized multi-sport athletes.

Dave Winfield was drafted in three pro sports. Weinke had the switch from pro ball to a Heisman trophy. And Joe Mauer was the #1 MLB draft pick after winning awards as the best high school football player in the country.


[Note: I think Joe Mauer was even an all-state basketball player, but I never saw him play, so I don't know how good he really was.]

Interesting. I heard some snippet on ESPN radio the other day Bo Jackson said he thinks it would be much more difficult today to play 2 sports than when was doing it. My guess is his point is how much more work studying the game you have to do no matter what sport it is.

One guy I think could have had a legit shot of playing 2 sports years ago was Darren Erstad. He was a heck of baseball player but he was also a very good college punter and was a key to them winning a National Championship in 94. In HS in Jamestown North Dakota he also won state championships in track and was a pretty good HS hockey player as well I would imagine he probably could have gone that route if he would have had an inclination to pursue it instead. I hope he can get the NE baseball program having success and stays here a long time.

monsterpile wrote:Interesting. I heard some snippet on ESPN radio the other day Bo Jackson said he thinks it would be much more difficult today to play 2 sports than when was doing it. My guess is his point is how much more work studying the game you have to do no matter what sport it is.

One guy I think could have had a legit shot of playing 2 sports years ago was Darren Erstad. He was a heck of baseball player but he was also a very good college punter and was a key to them winning a National Championship in 94. In HS in Jamestown North Dakota he also won state championships in track and was a pretty good HS hockey player as well I would imagine he probably could have gone that route if he would have had an inclination to pursue it instead. I hope he can get the NE baseball program having success and stays here a long time.

It's simply more difficult for kids to succeed in multiple sports any more. Youth sports is highly specialized... and it's a growing trend.

Heck, I was just talking to a coworker about 6th grade AAU hoops. These kids have personal trainers and get professional one-on-one instructors year-round. Forget about doing all that for multiple sports simultaneously.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

monsterpile wrote:Interesting. I heard some snippet on ESPN radio the other day Bo Jackson said he thinks it would be much more difficult today to play 2 sports than when was doing it. My guess is his point is how much more work studying the game you have to do no matter what sport it is.

One guy I think could have had a legit shot of playing 2 sports years ago was Darren Erstad. He was a heck of baseball player but he was also a very good college punter and was a key to them winning a National Championship in 94. In HS in Jamestown North Dakota he also won state championships in track and was a pretty good HS hockey player as well I would imagine he probably could have gone that route if he would have had an inclination to pursue it instead. I hope he can get the NE baseball program having success and stays here a long time.

It's simply more difficult for kids to succeed in multiple sports any more. Youth sports is highly specialized... and it's a growing trend.

Heck, I was just talking to a coworker about 6th grade AAU hoops. These kids have personal trainers and get professional one-on-one instructors year-round. Forget about doing all that for multiple sports simultaneously.

Yeah it's pretty intense. A local kid here Jakson Reetz got drafted in the 3rd round of the MLB draft in 2014 out of HS and someone showed me the videos of all he did with his dad and at school on just a typical day in the winter and it was unbelievable. Sure it's not a middle of nowhere school and the University of Nebraska is a baseball school a few miles away but it was a lot of hard work and dedication no doubt.

So Robinson played some football when he was in college and had some INTs. Should he get a shot? Sure why not I guess but is he really so good at CB that he thinks he can be better than similarly sized and far from a slouch athlete like Marcus Sherels? I would like to see him a get a chance at a rookie minicamp and see what happens it would be a fun storyline to keep up with.