Considering his athleticism and physique, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James as a football player. And, as it turns out, the chances of this happening were bigger than anyone thought.
James recently made an appearance on Paul Rivera’s The Uninterrupted podcast alongside his business partner Maverick Carter and revealed that he considered becoming a football player during an NBA lockout in 2011.
According to James, he wasn’t sure how long the NBA would be absent, so he adopted the training regime of football players to be ready for the start of NFL season.
“I had no idea how long the lockout was going to be, and myself and my trainer Mike Mancias, we really started to actually train to be a football player when it came to October, November,” said James. “We started to clock our times in the 40, we started to add a little bit more in our bench presses and things of that nature. We started to add more sled to our agenda with our workouts.”
And James becoming a football player was actually a real possibility, as he even got a contract from Dallas Cowboys.
“I know he got a contract from Jerry Jones (Cowboys’ owner) that he framed and put in his office,” added Carter.
Besides being a basketball phenom during his high-school year, LeBron James was also an accomplished football player. He played wide receiver with St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Ohio and even earned All-State honors.
His accomplishments at the football field caught attention from high-profile programs in the country, and James received a scholarship offer from Notre Dame in 2000. Still, he made a wise decision to stick with basketball, becoming a No.1 overall pick in 2003 and establishing himself as one of the best to play the game.
