Kyler Murray is tearing up the college football scene and has taken the reigns from Baker Mayfield to sustain Oklahoma’s superpowered offense.
Despite the fact that Murray is currently a frontrunner in the heavily anticipated Heisman race, but what’s most interesting to me is his immense talent in multiple sports. Murray was the King of Texas high school football, winning three straight national championships and 43 games in a row and as a starting quarterback was 42-0. Following his senior year in 2014, he was the Gatorade National Football Player of the Year. He was the first High School player to be an All American in both football and baseball, was the number one dual-threat quarterback in the nation and a top prospect in the 2015 MLB Draft. He was drafted in 2018 by the Oakland Athletics in 2018, is playing his last year of eligibility for the Oklahoma Sooners and will start his MLB career in 2019.
Kyler Murray isn’t the only multi-sport phenom to grace the football field. Many future Hall of Famers have set the path that Murray has followed. The most famous examples of multi-sport athletes having success in the NFL are college basketball players playing Tight End and quarterbacks being great baseball players.
Antonio Gates
Gates was one of the best basketball players in Kent State History. He led the team to their first ever elite eight berth while averaging 16 points, and his number 44 is retired by the University. However, after being largely ignored as a prospect in the NBA draft he entered the NFL Draft and was eventually taken by the San Diego Chargers. Gates is now a sure first-ballot Hall of Famer having 946 catches for 11,747 yards and an astounding 116 touchdowns, which is 6th all time.
Bo Jackson
It’s honestly surprising that I have never written about Bo Jackson on this blog. He’s the biggest what if in NFL history, and despite only playing a few seasons is widely regarded as one of the best running backs of all time. On top of absolutely decimating every defense he came up against, he was an MLB all-star and an absolute freak of an athlete. Jackson won the 1985 Heisman Trophy while also competing in baseball and track and field. Furthermore, Jackson was one of the only athletes of all time to be an all-star in multiple sports, both baseball, and football.
Deion Sanders
Similarly to Bo, Sanders was a three-sport athlete in college at Florida State University. At Florida State Sanders was a record-breaking punt returner and had similar levels of success in both baseball and track. Sanders had an extremely prolific career as both a professional baseball player, playing over 600 games with 4 different clubs, and was a perennial All-Pro cornerback and widely considered one of the best cornerbacks and punt returners to ever play the game. He was a revolutionary player at the cornerback position, the only man to hit a home run and score a touchdown in the same week, appear in the world series and the Super Bowl and one of the only man to score a touchdown six (yes SIX) different ways.
