6 Athletes from Other Sports Who Made It in the NFL

by Jeremy Block - 8/24/2026

Athletes from other sports who made it into NFL Christian Okoye

The NFL is one of the hardest leagues on the planet to break into, especially for guys who never grew up wanting to be a professional football player. Every roster spot goes to someone who has been dreaming of the chance to step on the turf since middle school, which is why watching an athlete from a completely different sport walk into the league and hold their own is so rare and bizarre to hear about.

It has happened, though. A handful of players have crossed over from baseball, basketball, track, and even rugby and had themselves solid NFL careers. Here are six athletes who found themselves leaving their sport for the shoulder pads and cleats.

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Renaldo Nehemiah (1982-1984)

Before Nehemiah ever put on shoulder pads professionally, he was breaking world records on the track. He held the 110-meter hurdles world record for years and was widely considered the fastest hurdler on the planet in the late 1970s. Football was never a thought until the San Francisco 49ers convinced him to give it a shot in 1982.

Nehemiah spent three seasons with San Francisco as a wide receiver, catching passes from Joe Montana. And while he never had a massive impact on the stat-sheet with just 43 career receptions, his speed alone forced defenses to account for him and opened up the field for others to get open. He picked up a Super Bowl ring after San Francisco won Super Bowl XIX over Miami, which is more hardware than most guys who spent their whole lives playing football will ever get.

The wild part is Nehemiah returned to track after his NFL career ended, competing at a world-class level again through the late 1980s. Not many athletes leave their sport, win a Super Bowl, and then go back to competing at the top of a completely different discipline. Nehemiah did it without blinking.

Bo Jackson (1987-1990)

Every conversation about two-sport athletes starts and ends with Bo Jackson. The Auburn Heisman winner was drafted first overall by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1986 but chose to play baseball instead. The Raiders chose to snag Jackson in the seventh round the following year, even knowing football would only be his hobby since baseball was his real career.

Playing football part-time while starring for the Kansas City Royals in MLB, Jackson still managed to become one of the most electric running backs the NFL has ever seen. He rushed for over 2,700 yards in just 38 career games, made the Pro Bowl in 1990, and turned in performances that people still talk about, most famously his 221-yard Monday night explosion against Seattle where he ran over Brian Bosworth and straight into NFL folklore.

A hip injury during a playoff game in January 1991 ended his football career and effectively cut his baseball career short as well. Bo Jackson at full strength was one of the most physically gifted athletes to ever play any professional sport, and the NFL only got a partial version of what he could do. Even that partial version was enough to become legendary.

Deion Sanders (1989-2005)

In the late 80s and early 90s, there was not a whole lot Deion Sanders could not do, and switching sports without missing a beat was near the top of the list. Prime Time spent nine seasons splitting time between the NFL and MLB, playing eight years for four different baseball teams while also becoming one of the greatest cornerbacks the sport has ever seen. To this day, he is the only person to play in both a World Series and a Super Bowl.

However, football is where he made his name. Eight Pro Bowls, two Super Bowl rings with two different teams (the 49ers in 1994 and the Cowboys the year after), and a first-ballot Hall of Fame selection built on coverage skills that forced opposing quarterbacks to throw somewhere else.

What sets Sanders apart from every other multi-sport athlete is that he was doing all of that in football while also holding down an everyday MLB outfield job. Nobody in the history of professional sports has ever pulled that off at his level, and nobody is coming close to it anytime soon.

Christian Okoye (1987-1992)

Nigeria is not exactly known to produce a lot of NFL talent, let alone running backs, which is what makes Christian Okoye's story so wild. He grew up as a track and field athlete competing in the discus, shot put, and hammer throw, and did not pick up a football until he was 23 years old at Azusa Pacific University. It did not take long for scouts to realize his combination of size and speed was off the charts, and that eventually led to the Kansas City Chiefs taking him in the second round of the 1987 NFL Draft.

Okoye became “The Nigerian Nightmare” almost overnight. Standing 6-foot-1 and 253 pounds with a 4.4 40-yard dash, he was a matchup nightmare that put opposing defensive game plans into a bind, since guarding him one-on-one just did not work. He led the NFL in rushing in 1989 with 1,480 yards and even made the Pro Bowl twice.

His career was relatively short, playing only six seasons before injuries caught up with him. Still, watching a guy who was throwing a discus a few years earlier turn into one of the most more dangerous tailbacks in the league is not something you see every day. Okoye was in a league of his own.

Antonio Gates (2003-2018)

Skipping college football entirely to focus on basketball, Gates spent his college years at Kent State becoming a star power forward and leading the Golden Flashes to an Elite Eight berth in 2002. When he went undrafted by the NBA, the San Diego Chargers decided to make an offer he couldn’t refuse, taking him as an undrafted tight end in 2003 based on nothing but his athletic profile and basketball skills.

It was a big and unheard of gamble at the time, but the Chargers definitely cashed in. Gates went on to become one of the best undrafted signings in NFL history, playing 16 seasons for the Chargers, making eight Pro Bowls, and retiring as the all-time leader in touchdown receptions by a tight end with 116.

Gates was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2025, which put a stamp on one of the most unexpected careers in the sport. A guy who never played a down of college football walked into the NFL and became one of the greatest tight ends ever, and there has been no one like him since.

Nate Ebner (2012-2020)

Rugby is not exactly a common sport that helps athletes make NFL rosters, but Nate Ebner took a weirder route than most. He was a top American rugby prospect who represented the United States at the Junior World Championships before walking on at Ohio State as a football player at age 20, with barely any experience in pads. The New England Patriots still saw enough to grab him in the sixth round of the 2012 draft, betting entirely on his athletic profile and special teams upside.

That bet paid off in a big way. Ebner spent eight seasons in New England and one with the Giants running down kickoffs and lighting up returners, and left the NFL with three Super Bowl rings. The wildest part of it all? Ebner paused his NFL career in 2016 to represent Team USA in rugby sevens at the Rio Olympics.

Ebner's stat line is not going to blow anybody away, but three Super Bowl rings and an Olympic appearance is a resume nobody else in football history can touch. Not bad for a guy who barely knew the game until his 20s.

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Start:	August 24, 2026 @ 10:10 PM
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6 Athletes from Other Sports Who Made It in the NFL

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