LeBron James has always been lauded for not only being one of the greatest players in NBA history, but also for being one of the game’s greatest physical specimens of all time.
If one needs further evidence, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar started training in earnest to play in the NFL during the 2011 NBA lockout.
LeBron started training to be a football player during the NBA lockout in 2011 and Mav Carter said Jerry Jones even sent LeBron a contract.
(via @uninterrupted) pic.twitter.com/Yq4MJ3Zwp7
— ESPN (@espn) May 19, 2020
“I had no idea how long the lockout was gonna 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,” said James. “We started to clock our times with the 40s. We started to add a little bit more to our bench presses.”
As many James fans know, he wasn’t exactly a newbie to the game of football.
“I know he got a contract from Jerry Jones that he framed and put in his office,” said James’ business partner Maverick Carter.
While attending St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in his native Akron, Ohio, James played wide receiver for the varsity football team. He was named to the first-team all-state team in just his sophomore season.
At the time, Urban Meyer, who was then part of Bob Davie’s coaching staff at the University of Notre Dame, tried to recruit James to play college football.
As fate would have it, James suffered a wrist injury while playing AAU basketball just prior to his senior year of high school, and kaput went his budding football career.
One can only imagine what could’ve been for both college football and the NFL had James opted for pigskin instead of roundball.
