An NFL legend gives the 2 players who could hit US football, Zion snubbed!
An extremely rare physical specimen in history, Zion Williamson is often seen as a player of ideal size and ability for the NFL. However, an icon of the famous US football league preferred two other NBA players to him when choosing those who could make the transition between the two sports.
Powerful, fast, leaping, solid, rough, agile with his hands, intelligent… So many qualities that can sum up Zion Williamson, and which make him one of the most polarizing talents in the league. At only 21 years old, all these specificities already allow the Pelicans juggernaut to reign in the paintings of the league, and to count an All-Star Game selection in his prize list.
According to many specialists, they could also have led him… to the NFL. Several universities renowned for their US football program in the NCAA have made him scholarship offers, to join them as a tight end, or even a wide receiver. But for Deion Sanders, illustrious 90s cornerback and former MLB player, only two NBA players could truly achieve a double career like his.
KD in the NFL 👀 @DeionSanders says he’d love to see it, but he’s a little « slim. »
Deion also thinks LeBron would thrive as a two-sport athlete like he did. pic.twitter.com/f81ohh27QK
– First Take (@FirstTake) August 26, 2021
LeBron could do it! LeBron could do it. He could play catcher in US football, that’s for sure. US soccer players could not retrain in basketball. Not at the NBA level anyway, because they couldn’t keep up with going back and forth on the field. I would say KD, but he’s a bit skinny. But I would just put it in the red-zone to run a “bland” route! (Laughs)
He also often sent to the NFL over the course of his career, LeBron could very well have joined the elite of US football if he had decided so after his high school education. The offers for it would certainly have been rushed, and the King would have been spoiled for choice. He estimated himself until recently that he could easily have joined the roster of a team during the 2011 lockout.
For its part, KD does not indeed display the same predispositions as its great rival on the floors. Much less robust on the physical level, it could however compensate for this deficit by its size and its stealth according to Sanders. Assets that he had been able to show off during this same 2011 lockout, during which he had tried crampons on his feet in an epic encounter with… LeBron James.
Forget Zion Williamson: only LeBron James and Kevin Durant could dream of an NFL conversion for Deion Sanders. The Nets star should however spend some time in the weight room before that!
