LeBron James in a Cowboys uniform?
Jerry Jones may be left forever fantasizing what could have been.
While many have wondered how good James could be in other sports, the four-time MVP almost gave them an answer.
During the NBA lockout in 2011, James began thinking about and training for a potential jump to the NFL. He even has an unsigned contract from Jones framed in his office to show for it, according to his friend and business partner Maverick Carter, though it never came to fruition as the NBA eventually ended the lockout and began its season on Christmas day.
“To be honest, it actually was,” James said on the Uninterrupted’s “WRTS: After Party,” when asked if football was ever a thought for him that year. “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 and November. We started to clock our times with the 40s, we started to add a little bit more in our bench presses and things of that nature. We started to add more sledding to our agenda with our workouts.”
LeBron James at the Cowboys’ stadium in 2013.Getty ImagesInstead, after the lockout ended, James went on to win his first NBA championship that season with the Heat.
The 6-foot-9, 250-pound James was an all-state wide receiver as a sophomore in high school and garnered some recruiting interest from Urban Meyer and Notre Dame, among others. He did not play his senior year, though, because of a wrist injury and then went No. 1 in the 2003 NBA draft.
“Never having the ability to finish my high school career of playing my senior year, I have dreams all the time about playing football,” James said. “It’s crazy, because I never actually run on the field in my dreams. It always gets to the point where I’m either in the locker room or getting dressed or talking about it or seeing the fans. As soon as I’m about to run on the field, something else happens in my dream.”
Clippers coach Doc Rivers is among those who believe James could have been dominant on the gridiron.
“I really believe if LeBron James played football, he may have been the greatest football player ever,” Rivers said recently on his son’s podcast.
