How many Murrays are there?
Kyler Murray has chosen football over baseball, at least for now. It is anyone’s guess when the world will see another athlete with the skills and opportunity to have such a choice.
The Oakland Athletics selected Murray ninth overall in the Major League Baseball draft last June. He then went out and won the Heisman Trophy in his only year as Oklahoma’s starting quarterback, declared for the NFL draft last month and picked the NFL over MLB on Monday.
Few athletes have positioned themselves to have such dynamic options. And in this age of youth sports specialization, it may become rarer still.
Deion Sanders played pro football and baseball, and “Prime Time” has a special place in his heart for athletes who excel at a high level in both sports. He wishes more young men had the same opportunities as Murray but laments that youth sports coaches often encourage kids to pick one main sport at an early age.
“You’ve got some idiot in a youth league telling a kid, ‘If you just focus on this one thing, you’re going to be great,’” Sanders said. “Then you’ve got the same (kind of) idiot in high school — ‘You’re not going to play this other sport because I’m not going to let you start until you dedicate yourself.’”
Sports specialization has drawn a lot of attention in recent years, with baseball greats such as John Smoltz suggesting it can hurt young players simply because of the wear and tear. Still, many believe it has its place.
After all, most athletes don’t have the gifts of Murray, Sanders or Bo Jackson, the 1986 Heisman winner for Auburn who was an All-Star for the Kansas City Royals in 1989 and made the Pro Bowl for the Los Angeles Raiders in 1990. Tom Westerberg, Murray’s football coach at Allen (Texas) High School who now coaches at Barbers Hill (Texas) High, said even the really good ones often are best served honing their skills in one sport.
“Athletes like him (Murray) come around once in a long time, with that athletic ability and been doing it for that long,” Westerberg said. “How many Deion Sanderses have there been? You can name the Bo Jacksons, the Deion Sanderses — you can name those guys on one hand. So it’s not that all of a sudden you tell a kid to play multiple sports and you’re going to get a ton of Kyler Murrays and Deion Sanderses.’”
And having options comes with complications and questions.
Back in 1992, Sanders played cornerback for the Atlanta Falcons during the day in Miami, then flew to Pittsburgh to join his Atlanta Braves teammates for a National League Championship Series game. Sanders looked back at that day during a recent ESPN documentary called “Deion’s Double Play.”
Sanders’ true love was football, and it was his focus. He is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and had a productive baseball career, but he offered a glimpse of what might have been during the 1992 World Series, when he hit .533 with four runs, eight hits and two doubles in four games.
“I regret often that I didn’t put a lot more into the game of baseball,” Sanders said. “I really do. I have those thoughts often.”