Athletes Who Have Played in Several Professional Leagues

According www.espn.com, NBA superstar LeBron James has recently considered playing in the NFL for the Cleveland Browns. This is of course ridiculous news from an NBA fan's standpoint. If LeBron is indeed serious about his statements, he could possibly play wide receiver for the Struggling Browns. The Cleveland Browns have literally become the embarrassment of the NFL, but not as embarrassing as the Detroit Lions who became the first team in NFL history to have a 0-16 record. Anyway, for those of you who don't know already, LeBron James was actually a star on his high school football team. Whether he can play the game as good as basketball, remains to be seen, but I would really support the guy if does indeed decide to play in the NFL. There have been a handful of professional athletes that have managed to have successful careers in two different sports.

Bo Jackson was the first professional athlete that has achieved success in two different sports. He was first drafted by the New York Yankees in 1982 at the young age of 20. Instead of playing the professional baseball for a team with the richest history, he decided to go to Auburn University to play football. Not only did he play college football, but college baseball as well. He went on to become an All-American twice in his collegiate career and eventually winning a Heisman trophy. Shortly after winning those awards he was drafted by the Raiders in 1986. The second pro athlete to achieve similar success would be Deion Sanders who was basically one of the most unstoppable defensive men in the NFL. He did however play baseball professionally with teams such as the New York Yankees, but he was actually drafted twice by not only the Yankees, but the Kansas City Royals back in 1985. Sanders did show signs of success in the sport especially with the Atlanta Braves, but due to a clause with his Atlanta Falcons contract, he could not stick with the baseball team any longer.

One has to wonder how healthy you have to be to play two different professional sports. You really have to admire the heck out of these guys because they must really love the game of baseball and football. Personally, I wish I was that kind of athlete with that much talent, but unfortunately that will never happen. Mini bios from both Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson were found at www.pro-football-reference.com.

Statistical data was retrieved at www.espn.com.