While Michael Jordan is widely known for his connection to basketball and baseball, we often tend to overlook his interest in football. In fact, MJ’s football knowledge once took former Chicago Bears Wide Receiver Doug Flutie by surprise. Doug was taken aback by the fact that Jordan knew about his brother Darren Flutie, who played in the Canadian football league at the time.
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During a recent appearance on Games with Names podcast, Doug Flutie recalled his favorite MJ story, which happened when Jordan was slowly cementing himself as the face of the NBA. During the 1987 NFL strike, Flutie had a chance to play pick-up games in Chicago as the beginning of NBA training camps coincided with the strike.
Flutie recalled how Michael Jordan’s presence always brought a different kind of intensity to the games. The former NFL star admitted that he found it difficult to keep up when MJ was on the court.
However, the 61-year-old recently revealed that he had a rather heartwarming interaction with the Bulls legend during one of those pickup games. When Flutie was walking to the training room, Jordan, who was getting taped for practice, surprised him by bringing up his brother Darren.
Not only did MJ know about Darren’s then-Canadian football league team, the BC Lions, the Bulls superstar also recalled being impressed by one of his performances as a Boston College Eagles player. Doug Flutie said during the podcast,
“I remember walking to the Training room and Jordan is getting taped. He goes, ‘Oh Duog, your brother plays for BC?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ [To the show hosts] My brother broke his hand and had a cast on one hand, he’s a receiver.”
“And he had a couple of touchdowns, a couple of one-hand catches, and Jordan saw it. [Jordan said] ‘He had a great game against Syracuse.’ I thought that was the coolest thing ever,”’ Flutie added.
Even though the 61-year-old former NFL star was taken aback by MJ’s football knowledge, it is not surprising that Jordan knew so much about the sport. After all, he once considered choosing football after his first NBA retirement in 1993.
MJ almost picked football over baseball in 1993
While it is no secret that Jordan pursued a baseball career after his first retirement, he also thought about becoming a wide receiver in the NFL. He got in touch with former Chicago Bears defensive end Richard Dent to discuss his prospects as a WR.
In January 1992, Sports Illustrated author David Halberstam interviewed Jordan, when the latter told him about his desire to play football. Halberstam mentioned this interview in his bestseller “Playing for Keeps”.
“He [Michael Jordan] had also mentioned trying professional football — one more challenge — and had talked about it with his friend Richard Dent. He would be a wide receiver but would not go after passes coming across the middle, he noted.”
It would have been interesting to see a 6’6” Jordan operate as a Wide Receiver in the NFL scene. But there is a high-chance that like baseball, he’d have been relegated to a minor league instead of playing in the NFL. At any rate, considering his knack for perfecting his craft, he would have surely given it his all.
