The Minnesota Timberwolves are in prime position to continue being one of the top-performing teams in the stacked Western Conference next season. At this point, their biggest fear probably isn't anything actually related to basketball. It may very well be the the far-fetched but not impossible reality where Anthony Edwards decides he wants to play football in the NFL.
If you know about Edwards' upbringing, you know that long before he was one of the best basketball players in the world, he was a Pop Warner football player in his youth. And Ant didn't just play, he dominated, drawing comparisons to a young Michael Vick. It's fair to say football was his first love as an athlete.
Growing up in the American south where football is extremely relevant culturally, it made sense that Edwards got involved with the sport from a young age. But by the time he got to high school, Ant had already made the decision to pivot full-time to basketball.
Toward the end of his high school career when he was getting college offers and committing to the University of Georgia, there didn't seem to be any point in Edwards pursuing a professional football career anymore. But that doesn't mean that it wasn't still at the back of his mind.
Last year, Ant's famous trash talking led to him making an assertion about the differences between professional basketball and football players. "Football players can't go play basketball," he told Minnesota Vikings reciever Justin Jefferson. "No way. I told my buddies, I said ‘if I win a ring in the next three to four years, I’m going to play football.'"
Anthony Edwards has talked about playing in the NFL multiple times
Jefferson tried to call his bluff, but Edwards insisted he wasn't messing around. If you're a real die-hard Minnesota sports fan and are eager about seeing some unique crossover between your favorite teams, you'd probably get pretty excited to hear this. But I have a feeling most Timberwolves fans want to cast off this thought as a pure fantasy and not think anything more of it.
I say that for two reasons. The first of which being the massive injury risk that comes with playing tackle football. You could argue there's not a sport that does more to degrade athletes' bodies over multiple years of playing, especially at a professional level.
Then the second reason being the fact that taking one or multiple years off from playing basketball would have the potential to seriously harm his growth and development on the hardwood. He could still come back and hoop again after a short hypothetical football career, but it's hard to think he would look as sharp as he did before taking a hiatus. At the very least, it would take time to re-acclimate to the NBA.
As strange as it sounds, this isn't a concept that's totally foreign in the world of professional sports. Michael Jordan, who Ant has of course drawn comparisons to, shocked the sports world when he retired from basketball to play baseball back in 1993. The circumstances were different, but it was a similar transition. Jordan was the greatest basketball player on the planet at the time, but his skills didn't translate as well to the baseball diamond.
So that's another angle to consider it from as well. I think we all respect Edwards' athletic abilities, but the NFL is simply not the same as the NBA. I'm not saying Ant wouldn't succeed, but you'd have to think it would be a significant adjustment period for him to get comfortable playing receiver or really any position at a high level in the NFL.
Are we anywhere close to this scenario unfolding in reality, rather than just in theory? Probably not. Anthony Edwards' commitment to the Timberwolves is rock solid. But the fact that he's teased the idea means it's something that should be on fans' radar, especially if Minnesota does win a championship.