OPINION: Professional Athletes Who Switch To Another Sport Deserve Respect

Professional athletes are just like the rest of us, the best is never enough. If we excel at our jobs, we look for a higher position, there’s always something more challenging and bigger than ourselves that we want to do to feel fulfilled.

Consider the change from the NHL to MLB the same as making a career change from a dentist to a stockbroker. The dentist doesn’t have the knowledge of a stockbroker, but because he had to go through school and learn to be a dentist he could learn to be a stockbroker, he’d just have to work hard over time.

Athletes who have achieved success in their respective sports probably think, ‘what now?’. If football becomes mundane for Tim Tebow let him play baseball and don’t scoff, respect. Professional athletes are generally so athletically gifted, and some of them don’t even have to try that hard, that if they decide to play another sport they can absolutely do it and excel at it. No one ever comes out and says they think an athlete like Tebow would be a total failure in baseball, unless you’re Stephen A. Smith, but it’s suggested, and it shouldn’t be.

We shouldn’t shine the spotlight on someone being so bold, and ridicule them if they aren’t immediately as successful as the previous sport they used to play.

Some people view a switch in sports as a publicity stunt, but is changing careers from a doctor to a lawyer a publicity stunt? No. So why do some assume this of athletes?

Tebow, 29, played baseball until his junior year of high school when he batted .494. In between then and now he’s won the Heisman Trophy, two national titles at the University of Florida and spent some time in the NFL. If he can hang in the NFL I’m pretty confident he’s got what it takes to make and play for an MLB squad.

The question of age comes into play, and yes, age is more than just a number when it comes to competing in professional sports. The difference between someone like Tebow at 29 and 22 in MLB can be a big difference. Michael Jordan, 53, probably couldn’t beat LeBron James, but he could hang. In 2013 Michael Kidd Gilchrist, who was the second round pick of the 2012 NBA draft to the Charlotte Bobcats, played some one-on-one with MJ and Jordan schooled him, at 50 years old. When an athlete reaches a certain level, there are skills and knowledge that don’t fade, and neither does the athleticism.

After winning three NBA championships Jordan announced his retirement at 31 years old and started playing AA baseball. Tebow would likely be starting in the minors and working his way up competing against kids a decade younger than himself. What his body can’t help he can certainly make up for in knowledge and experience.

Throughout time there have been many multi-sport athletes and a number of them in the past couple of years that are have made the switch or are attempting to. The point is they have the athletic base to support them and all they have to do is commit to learning the technical skills.

Nate Robinson went to University of Washington on a football scholarship before he decided to focus on basketball. After sometime in the NBA and a stint overseas in Israel he tried out for the Seahawks as a defensive back but didn’t make the cut. Robinson is 32 years old, and was quite undersized for basketball at 5’9”, but the position he tried out for in Seattle is already four-deep. Pete Carroll said it would be challenging for him, but possible to make the switch. “I don’t know if anybody could do it. But if anybody could, it might be Nate. He’s that versatile an athlete and that great a competitor,” Carroll said.

Johnny Manziel was drafted by the San Diego Padres as a shortstop in 2014 the same year he was drafted in the NFL. For Manziel, baseball will always be there for him if he wants it.

Not only are athletes who want to switch sports scoffed at by people on the outside, but even by their own teammates.

During the Olympics the men’s basketball team found countless activities to entertain themselves outside of practice and competition. Jimmy Butler was running routes against Klay Thompson and he made it look easy. In an interview with the U.S. men’s Olympic team Butler half jokingly, half seriously said he could outperform Demaryius Thomas and Antonio Brown. Maybe in this instance he was mostly joking. Kevin Durant kept repeating “Jimmy’s an idiot.” The men’s basketball team has been known for their shenanigans this summer and Butler is the team clown, but if he practiced he could probably play in the NFL.

Perhaps none of them had adidas sponsorships, otherwise they’d know “Impossible Is Nothing.” Kyle Lowry and Harrison Barnes actually do have endorsements with adidas.

The video below highlights the interview with the U.S. men’s Olympic team and Butler’s receiving skills.

If Butler decided to make the switch, likely his Olympic teammates would support him and be the first to show up to training camp.

High achieving athletes are put on a pedestal and people expect greatness in anything they do because they’ve attained that image. Like anything in life, we don’t wake up one day, decide to do something and be the best at it immediately, it takes time. We’d all love to wake up and be ‘awesome’ at anything we decided to do that day but no one is Barney Stinson.

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – SEPTEMBER 03: Quarterback Tim Tebow #11 of the Philadelphia Eagles warms up on the sidelines against the New York Jets in the third quarter during a pre-season game at MetLife Stadium on September 3, 2015 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Rich Schultz /Getty Images)