By: William Burns
It is common in high school for a competent student-athlete to play multiple sports at very competitive levels. Unfortunately, these athletes are normally required to choose which sport they want to devote their time and resources towards in order to get the coveted college offers. However, it becomes rarer for athletes to play multiple sports in college, much less be stars at both of the sports, and have the opportunity to play at the professional level.
Kyler Murray is a stud. Plain and simple. This Oklahoma Sooners athlete has already been drafted by the Oakland Athletics but constructed his deal so that he could play in his football season because he had the possibility of starting. Well start he did, and he continued starting games and winning games and did so well that he was selected as the Heisman Trophy winner. In the 2018 college football season, Murray was nothing less than stellar. His pass completion percentage was 69%, completing 260 of 377 attempted passes for a total of 4,361 yards and 42 touchdowns. Pair that with another 1,000 yards of rushing yards and 12 more touchdowns with only seven interceptions, he captured a 199.2 rating.
While playing baseball for Oklahoma before he was drafted. Murray put together a great season in the outfield for the Sooners. With limited at-bats for the Sooners Murray put together a .296 average with 56 hits, 10 home runs, and 47 RBI’s on the season. This along with great speed and defense got him drafted ninth overall in the first round of the draft, with a contract guaranteeing around five million dollars.
So, what is the outcome of this whole situation? What are the factors that Murray has to consider when he has to choose between professional football or professional baseball? At this level, it is virtually unheard of to play both sports at the same time. Murray will need to consider career length, career earnings, and risk of injury to name a few.
Let’s talk about money. If Murray decides to pursue a career in football, he would have to return the 4.66 million dollar signing bonus that Oakland gave him. However, that would be small potatoes compared to what he would get in the NFL. In a recent mock draft, Murray is projected to go top ten and receive over 15 million guaranteed dollars in his first football contract. If he emerged as a legitimate quarterback in the NFL, his second contract would be multiple times larger. If he stayed with baseball, his signing bonus would be his to keep but rookie contracts are capped around the $700,000 range. For example, Andrew Benintendi was drafted in 2015 and was a big part of the Red Sox World Series win but still only made $620,000. If Murray just wants money, then he needs to go the football route.
Injuries happen often in both sports. In football with Murray’s style of play of running and getting outside the pocket, he will be susceptible to big hits by powerful NFL defenses that he did not face in college. MLB careers are normally less injury prone, and normally are longer. The NFL is doing a lot to help the injuries and are implementing new rules to keep players safe, and there are good quarterbacks in the NFL that are older and still successful, like Drew Brees and Tom Brady.
When you crunch the numbers the average career length in the NFL is three and a half seasons, and for the MLB it is five and half years. now there are definitely exceptions and good players can play for nearly twenty years. He also needs to consider Guaranteed money in contracts as opposed to incentive-based money because even if he is injured, he still gets guaranteed money.
Murray will be facing the biggest, life-altering decision of his life soon, and both careers will be lucrative. Either way, he loves the games and has potential for very promising careers in both sports.
