It’s hard to imagine the NBA without a figure as larger than life as Charles Barkley. The 6-foot-6 PF made a name for himself as an undersized 4 in the NBA, but before that, he was a star in the Auburn college team. According to Barkley, though, he almost tried out for Auburn’s football team when he was in college, and claimed coach Pat Dye tried his hardest to recruit him.
Advertisement
Barkley recalled this to Tim Green on ‘Nothing Left Unsaid‘ and spoke about how close he was to actually taking him up on his offer, He revealed that he’d set himself a goal – if his basketball journey was unsuccessful as a freshman, then he’d consider trying out for the football team. After poor experiences in his life playing football, Barkley was hesitant to play D-Line, but Dye invited him to try out for tight end if he wanted to.
“He says what about tight end? I said but no. Let me try this basketball thing first. If I don’t have success as a freshman, I might consider football again. But I had good success as a freshman.”
Barkley didn’t flunk out of basketball in his freshman year. He went on to have a pretty successful career for the Auburn Tigers. Barkley led his conference in rebounding for three years, earning the moniker “The Round Mound of Rebound.” He was named Southeastern Conference Player of the Year in 1984 and received three All-SEC selections, one Second Team All-American selection and one Third Team All-American selection.
All these were vital in upping his draft stock, and he eventually went 5th overall to the Philadelphia 76ers in 1984.
But Barkley’s wary nature around football didn’t originate in college. As mentioned, he’d tried out football earlier, in high school, and he called it the stupidest decision he’d ever made. He recalled how after his first practice he felt soreness in his entire body, and after his coach told the team to return the next day, Barkley put his foot down and said,
“I’m sitting there, my fingers are hurting everything’s hurting and I got my head down and the coach says, ‘I’ll see yall tomorrow.’ And I said, ‘I’m not doing this tomorrow!’ I said, ‘Coach, this is the stupidest decision I’ve ever made in my life.'”
Thankfully for us basketball lovers, Barkley’s decision to stay away from football paid off, and we got one of the most beloved TV analysts of our time.
