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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jaybadger82" data-source="post: 492805" data-attributes="member: 6211">That could be the case but I'm not sure whether it's accurate to think there are "thousands" of college basketball players really trying to catch on with the NFL. I follow college basketball rather closely and I don't hear much about kids attempting this sort of cross over. (FWIW, I know Bruce Ellington at the University of South Carolina plays both sports but he is rather short, 5'9", and compact; not what I had in mind in terms of basketball players with the physical tools to really excel as big NFL pass-catchers.) Seems like plenty of high school athletes come to college wanting to play both sports but few ever get the opportunity. In major college athletics, I believe kids are encouraged to pick a sport and stick to it for a couple of reasons:(1) Football is a fall semester sport. The college basketball season extends across both the fall semester and the spring semesters. Due to the overlap, it's difficult for a kid to play both sports at the collegiate level. Academically, it poses a serious challenge unless the kid is smart.(2) Football and basketball coaches at major colleges usually earn very lucrative salaries and their continued employment is often dependent on the success of their programs. Where careers are on the line, nobody is interested in sharing their players. Especially where an injury in the other sport could blow up their season. I suspect the vast majority of basketball players with the physical tools to thrive as TEs or WRs were steered away from football after high school and that few of them ever made a concerted effort to get back to the sport. This is probably because many division 1 college basketball players can have lucrative careers playing their sport overseas and because a basketball career is usually more attractive. Statistically speaking, basketball careers last longer and carry fewer long-term health risks than football.  Because the sport is played worldwide, the market for a basketball player's talents is also much greater. Nonetheless, I'm a bit surprised we don't see a few more <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Moss" target="_blank">Dale Mosses</a>: kids that exhaust their college eligibility in hoops with no prospects of playing overseas but who, nonetheless, possess the physical gifts to become NFL pass catchers. Perhaps we'll see more of this in the years to come- it's no secret that Gates, Graham, even Tony Gonzalez come from basketball backgrounds.  This is being quickly legislated out of the NFL and it's the reason TEs and slot receivers have become increasingly popular as pass catchers in today's offenses. They're not losing their heads over the middle anymore.</blockquote>

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