There’s a long-standing debate on whether NBA players would be able to succeed if they played football. While there’s no real way to find out, basketball players always tend to think they can at least compete at the highest level. During a recent appearance on Knicks teammates Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson’s Roommates Show, Julius Randle talked about his son’s love for football. He also unveiled that when it comes to allowing his kid to take up that sport, he would choose to go the LeBron James route.
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The major reason why athletes don’t prefer their kids playing football is because of the health risks attached to it. Football is a very physically demanding and dangerous sport, which has a high probability of brain injuries and other kinds of physical damage. In 2014 when LeBron was asked by ESPN about his kids playing football in the future, he said, “Only basketball, baseball and soccer are allowed in my house.”
So, it’s understandable why Randle doesn’t allow his son to play the sport as well.
When asked if he’ll ever put his kid on football practice during the pod, the 29-year-old said, “Nah. He wants to play so bad too and he’s a Cowboys fan.” Growing up in Texas, Randle had nothing but love for the game. In fact, even he wanted to play football while he was growing up, but his mother didn’t let that happen. Randle recalled that in Texas one of his friends got hurt while playing football and his concussion became an example for the Knicks star as to why he would never take up that sport.
Julius Randle’s son is made for football
Every sport has its distinct qualities and there are players, who have these qualities ingrained in them. For Randle’s son, he surely has the ability to play football or at least that’s what it looks like from a clip of him playing basketball. In a clip shared by ESPN, Randle’s little man can be seen playing basketball. But somewhere in between he got so frustrated by his teammate not passing him the ball that he ended up tackling the other guy.
On skills and confidence alone, he seems to be ready to play football, but there’s so much more to that sport than just clean tackles. And the one example that Randle gave of his friend’s concussion, that’s basically an everyday affair for a football player. So, all things considered, it’s probably for the best that he doesn’t allow his son to put his health at risk from a young age.
