Surprise!! Margus Hunt playing SMU Football?

[SMU21TCU10]

I think this is all insane. You do not take a world class athlete who has a chance to compete in the Olympics and professional (yes, professional) track tour making big $$$$ and subject him to the chance of injury in football. Injury particularly to knees and shoulders which are the essence of his sport. I think he probably needs financial help at this time to continue training away from home and this is the way they could help him out. Probably found an old endowed track scholarship and gave it to him and indicated a football connection as justification. I will be shocked if he actually tries to do anything football related.

Or he watched the football games, liked them, and wanted to try it himself. Not everything has to be a conspiracy, sometimes they just want to play football.

I'm guessing that he figured out exactly how much tang a Texas College football player could get and BAM game over, no contest. You can keep all the track and field money... you have to go for the gold in triangle!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEe7i-1ji3w

-CoS

hahahaha that made more sense than anyhting i have ever read on this board

[SMU21TCU10]

good example of track athlete who couldn't play football was Alexander Wright, he of the 4.13 40...couldn't catch, cut, block, move laterally

i always wondered if courtney ireland, former smu thrower extraordinaire, could have played. he grew up playing rugby and graduated early so he could try to make the NZ All Blacks

I worked in NZ for a while and went to an all blacks game and it was awesome. the haka was legit

[PoconoPony]

I think this is all insane. You do not take a world class athlete who has a chance to compete in the Olympics and professional (yes, professional) track tour making big $$$$ and subject him to the chance of injury in football. Injury particularly to knees and shoulders which are the essence of his sport. I think he probably needs financial help at this time to continue training away from home and this is the way they could help him out. Probably found an old endowed track scholarship and gave it to him and indicated a football connection as justification. I will be shocked if he actually tries to do anything football related.

Or he watched the football games, liked them, and wanted to try it himself. Not everything has to be a conspiracy, sometimes they just want to play football.

I'm guessing that he figured out exactly how much tang a Texas College football player could get and BAM game over, no contest. You can keep all the track and field money... you have to go for the gold in triangle!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEe7i-1ji3w


A number of years ago I had some limited personal contacts with Renaldo Nehemiah who held the world record in the 110 hurdles. I knew him more through a friend who was his personal chiropractor who treated him daily. He signed and played for roughly 5 years with the 49ers as a wide receiver. Bottom line is that he obviously had world class speed, was acceptably tall with strength and size; however, his speed did not readily include the ability to change pace and make quick cuts. He never really developed true football instincts, his pass patterns were less than consistently precise and his hands were not great. He was not a successful NFL story. If he had been a football player first with his speed and size and developed football sense he may have been more successful in the NFL. He is one of many examples of an athlete who appears to have all of the physical and mental tools who simply cannot change sports. Look no further than Michael Jordan and Danny Ainge who could not take their basketball skills to baseball. I can really only think of Bullet Bob Hayes and Michael Carter as football players first who were world class athletes in track plus Bo Jackson and Dion Sanders who were football players first and made it in baseball. There are very few stories of athletes who successfully switch to a second sport in which they have no previous background. ( Today Nehemiah is a very talented and successful sports agent who has handle many track world class athletes such as world record holder Michael Johnson formerly of Baylor.)

Magnus maybe a great athlete; however, I stick with my original statement that it is insane for us to believe he will be a football player let alone a serviceable player. I still believe it is in SMU's best interests to have a world class athlete on campus and that if the athletic department can assist him in some way to continue training at SMU he will bring great PR and positive attention to SMU. I personally would not even want to coach him in football fearing risk of injury to the pursuits in which he has demonstrated world class talent.
-CoS

[mrydel]

Why don't we let him make that decision. I do not see where what we think matters at all in this case. We have a man that wants to walk on and try to play football. Let him try. If he can not cut it, he will know himself very soon.

[mathman]

I agree with Mrydel about letting the young man decide for himself. However I was curious after reading the post about Nehemiah, what the average stay in the NFL was for a player. In the back of my mind I was thinking I had read about 4 years one time. So I googled it. Here is what I found.

In 1970, the average NFL player lasted nearly five years in the league. By 1986, he had a three-year stay, a downward trend that continued as the league adopted more pass-happy formations, such as the West Coast offense, according to the NFL Players Association. A vested NFL player (meaning they get their pension after retirement) has to play a least 4 years. It's a short stay for most and this is why you see athletes trying to get the most money from NFL owners.

If Nehemiah stayed in it for 5 years, he seems to be on par with everyone else. On average.

[PoconoPony]

I agree with Mrydel about letting the young man decide for himself. However I was curious after reading the post about Nehemiah, what the average stay in the NFL was for a player. In the back of my mind I was thinking I had read about 4 years one time. So I googled it. Here is what I found.

In 1970, the average NFL player lasted nearly five years in the league. By 1986, he had a three-year stay, a downward trend that continued as the league adopted more pass-happy formations, such as the West Coast offense, according to the NFL Players Association. A vested NFL player (meaning they get their pension after retirement) has to play a least 4 years. It's a short stay for most and this is why you see athletes trying to get the most money from NFL owners.

If Nehemiah stayed in it for 5 years, he seems to be on par with

everyone else. On average.

Good research. Thanks. I was aware that certain positions such as running back had circa. a 4 year average; however, did not realize that was pretty much the standard for the league in all positions. At any rate, and in Nehemiah's case, I recall the team may have been stuck with a long term contract issue with certain guarantees which insured they would keep him on rather than lose $$$. He was serviceable as a 4th redeiver; however, never quite met the hopes they had for him when he was signed for substantial $$$$.

Mrydel is right in that it is up to the athlete to decide for himself what he wants to do and assess the risks. If he tries out, I wish him well and maybe he will prove to be the exception. I personally would recommend against playing and focus his full time training on becoming a world record holder. My gut reaction remains that he needs assistance to stay in school and continue training. For this reason the athletic department found a way to help him.

[mrydel]

Out of curiosity, does anyone with enough age recall if Randy Matson at Texas A&M was a high school FB player or did he convert to FB from track?

Never mind. I wikipedia'ed him. He was a track, football, and basketball athlete.

[gostangs]

If you are a world record holder at something only about 12 people in the U.S. care about - what difference does that make? (if a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it.....) If he is a great football player and has the skill to get better and go to the next level - then that is fantastic. If he only has the skill to play in college and then goes out and gets a job then he has more to talk about that is relevant then any track guy.

He is making the right choice.

[ponyboy]

Depends on your personality, I suppose. I would take world records and gold medals in discus over NFL stardom myself. But then again I'm the guy who hates Vegas.

[mrydel]

Depends on your personality, I suppose. I would take world records and gold medals in discus over NFL stardom myself. But then again I'm the guy who hates Vegas.

You will like Vegas when you become a ponyman. Just like girls.

[davidsmu94]

good example of track athlete who couldn't play football was Alexander Wright, he of the 4.13 40...couldn't catch, cut, block, move laterally

i always wondered if courtney ireland, former smu thrower extraordinaire, could have played. he grew up playing rugby and graduated early so he could try to make the NZ All Blacks

Courtney is one of my best friends. I remember Rossley offered him a scholarship if he wanted one.

[ponyboy]

Depends on your personality, I suppose. I would take world records and gold medals in discus over NFL stardom myself. But then again I'm the guy who hates Vegas.

You will like Vegas when you become a ponyman. Just like girls.

I like real places and real women. I'll take Cameron, Montana and a cowboy hat wearing, ponytailed woman all day over that hell hole stuffed full of slick, drunk putzes and their artificially endowed escorts. But that's just me.

[mrydel]

Depends on your personality, I suppose. I would take world records and gold medals in discus over NFL stardom myself. But then again I'm the guy who hates Vegas.

You will like Vegas when you become a ponyman. Just like girls.

I like real places and real women. I'll take Cameron, Montana and a cowboy hat wearing, ponytailed woman all day over that hell hole stuffed full of slick, drunk putzes and their artificially endowed escorts. But that's just me.

You did not have to bring my wife into it.

[SMUtrojanFAN]

Depends on your personality, I suppose. I would take world records and gold medals in discus over NFL stardom myself. But then again I'm the guy who hates Vegas.

You will like Vegas when you become a ponyman. Just like girls.

I like real places and real women. I'll take Cameron, Montana and a cowboy hat wearing, ponytailed woman all day over that hell hole stuffed full of slick, drunk putzes and their artificially endowed escorts. But that's just me.

Brokeback Mountain?

[SMU21TCU10]

Depends on your personality, I suppose. I would take world records and gold medals in discus over NFL stardom myself. But then again I'm the guy who hates Vegas.

You will like Vegas when you become a ponyman. Just like girls.

I like real places and real women. I'll take Cameron, Montana and a cowboy hat wearing, ponytailed woman all day over that hell hole stuffed full of slick, drunk putzes and their artificially endowed escorts. But that's just me.

Brokeback Mountain?

ha