A.J. Brown is looking to stamp his name on the short and elite list of legendary two-sport athletes. The Tennessee Titans wideout wants another shot at baseball, and he’s confident he can do better than Michael Jordan did.
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In the 2019 NFL draft, the Titans used their second round pick on A.J. Brown, a freak athlete out of Ole Miss. In his three seasons in the league, Brown has been impressive and is well on his to establishing himself as one of the top receivers in the game.
He earned a Pro Bowl selection in 2020 and has put up 2,995 yards and 24 TDs in his short, budding career. Of course the Titans haven’t exactly proven to be a powerhouse in the playoffs, once again striking out early this year, but Brown has a good supporting cast around him which should be helpful as he enters his prime.
However talented the Mississippi-native might be at football, he also has a knack for another sport: baseball. Three years before he was drafted by the Titans, it was the MLB draft he was attending. The San Diego Padres took him in the 19th round, and Brown even signed with them, deeming him ineligible to continue playing baseball at the collegiate level.
Obviously, and probably wisely, he chose to stick with football. His decision has turned out well, but with the NFL offseason underway for him, Brown is looking for another shot at the MLB.
A.J. Brown guarantees he would do better than Michael Jordan did at professional baseball
Responding to a Tweet about the legendary Bo Jackson’s unbelievable prowess in both the MLB and NFL, Brown wrote, “Sometimes I think about playing both sports again”, and informally asked the Padres to give him a tryout.
In a follow-up Tweet, he made a bold and probably comical claim that he would do better than MJ did when he left the Bulls in ’93 to give professional baseball a shot.
Needless to say, it’s pretty unlikely that this was meant to be anything more than some innocent fun. Over are the days where athletes like Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders could viably play two sports at once.
Brown certainly isn’t the first NFL player who had a chance to play baseball instead. Tom Brady, Kyler Murray, and Russell Wilson were all drafted to the MLB but inclined towards football.
For them, as it would be for Brown, playing baseball in parallel to football would not only be a huge injury risk but would also be incredibly difficult in the modern-era.
Wilson did actually attend spring training with the Yankees a few years ago, however, so if Brown is really serious about rekindling his love for the sport, maybe that’s an option he could realistically consider.
