Cooper DeJean Admits His 6-Foot Height Was One Reason He Chose Football Over Basketball

Cooper DeJean is an all-rounder. The Philadelphia Eagles’ budding superstar defensive back shined on the gridiron, the hardwood, and the track in high school. He was so good at basketball, in fact, that he used to want to pursue it for his career.

However, while he “still plays basketball every once in a while,” he chose the gridiron over the hardwood for his career. And look how well that turned out for him. At just 22, he’s now a Super Bowl champion.

But one look at his basketball highlights from high school will tell you that he could’ve just as easily found success in the NBA.

So what held him back? Practicality is the simple answer.

“Coming into high school, I wanted to play basketball in college. But I’m not quite tall enough and I’m kind of built more like a football player… [I] played basketball like a football player… [getting] downhill… driving to the hoop and trying to dunk on everybody,” he revealed Friday’s episode of Pardon My Take.

The DB told the PMT audience he initially wanted to pursue a basketball scholarship in high school. His play style, though, always traced back to football.

DeJean continued, saying “clearly football was the right decision.” He figured this out during his sophomore year of high school when his football recruiting began picking up.

While it’s not your typical path to the league, many former NFL players spent time on the hardwood in college.

2025 Hall of Fame inductee Antonio Gates led Kent State to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament in 2002. The active NFL player with the most impressive college basketball career is Indianapolis Colts tight end Mo Alie-Cox, who played for Virginia Commonwealth (VCU).

Gates and Alie-Cox are part of what’s actually a somewhat prolific basketball-to-football pipeline at the tight end position. Pro Bowlers Jimmy Graham (Miami-FL) and Julius Thomas (Sacramento State), among others, primarily played college basketball.

Two NFL Hall of Famers – tight end Tony Gonzalez and defensive end Julius Peppers – pulled double duty in college. Gonzalez played in the 1997 Sweet Sixteen for the Golden Bears. Peppers appeared in the 2000 Final Four with the Tar Heels. Neither man, though, was as prolific at basketball as they were at football.

DeJean is shorter in stature and smaller in weight than each of those six men. He wasn’t fortunate enough to play college basketball like they did, but he already has something none of them earned in their NFL careers: a Super Bowl ring. If that exchange is what it took to become a champion, DeJean would likely take that deal every day (and twice on Sundays).