LeBron James says he ‘absolutely’ considered swapping the NBA for the NFL during the 2011 lockout……
He led St. Vincent-St. Mary High School to three basketball state championships while also playing wide receiver for the school, being named First Team All-State in his sophomore year.
James was even the subject of offers from some of college football’s biggest names, recalling that then-Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel’s attempted to recruit him to be a dual-sport athlete before James entered the NBA draft. He was also courted by Urban Meyer, according to ESPN.
“I walked into the school (St. Vincent-St. Mary High), the coach, Jim Meyer, great guy, probably in 1998 or ’99, and he said: ‘Hey, come here a minute. I want to show you this. What do you think of this kid?’” Urban Meyer said, according to ESPN. “I started watching the video, and I was like: ‘Oh, my God.’ He was six-foot-whatever, obviously real big back then, too.
“He asked me what I thought and I said: ‘I want to offer him right now. Who is he?’” he continued, hoping to recruit James to Notre Dame where Meyer was the wide receivers coach at the time.
Eventually, James chose a career involving hoops rather than goallines but the thought has apparently always lingered in his head.
When asked who he imagined he could have compared to if he had chosen the NFL, James highlighted some legends.
“Probably a mix between (four-time Super Bowl winner Rob Gronkowski) and Randy Moss, but he’s a lot smaller than me,” the 40-year-old explained. “He runs a lot faster than me, but he’s a lot smaller than me, but like Megatron (three-time first-team All Pro wide receiver Calvin Johnson), we have that same like stature as far as like build. (Six-time first-team All Pro tight end) Tony Gonzalez, with him and his size, he played basketball as well, I used to love his celebration where he used to dunk on the goalposts.”
James’ footballing skill in high school led to many suggesting he could have a successful career in the NFL if he’d gone that route.
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