National Basketball Association

Throwback Thursday: LeBron James Contemplating a Jump to the NFL

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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With the NFL season starting this week, it’s only right that we look back to the time LeBron James contemplated joining the NFL.

LeBron James can do it all on the basketball court. There is no doubt about that. But we’ve always wondered how that skill would carry over to the gridiron.

LeBron was an all-state wide-receiver while at St. Vincent St. Mary’s High School in Akron. He was recruited by many big college coaches including Urban Meyer who was an assistant at Notre Dame at the time. It is also rumored that he had offers from Ohio State, Miami, and Alabama.

James was an outstanding wide receiver in high school, but he has the skill set to play any position on the field. I have always thought that a good comparison NFL player to LeBron was Calvin Johnson. Johnson dominated while in the NFL because of his combination of size, strength, and speed. That being said, LeBron has more size than Johnson and is likely stronger and faster.

While James shown that he had the intangibles and physical ability to play football, there is no guarantee how good he would have ended up.

LeBron has let it be known many times in his career that he still dreams of playing in the NFL. During the 2011 lockout he challenged Kevin Durant to a game of flag football, and won.

There is also a famous video of James throwing a football through a basketball hoop from full court.

James hinted at the possibility of playing football during the 2011 lockout. He went so far as to ask NFL insider John Clayton when the cutoff was for a player to sign as a free agent.

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LeBron also reportedly practiced football in full pads with St. Vincent St. Mary’s during the lockout. If the NBA season was cancelled, we may have seen number 23 playing exclusively on Sundays.

Unfortunately, we will never know the answer to just how good James would have been at football. We are left to speculate. Maybe he could’ve brought a long awaited Super Bowl to the Cleveland Browns. Too bad we’ll never know. All we can do is dream about what could have been.