Los Angeles, California 12/29/2013
Often times in high school there are athletes who excel at a number of sports simply because they are more athletic than the other players they are facing. Over the past decade though, we have seen now more than ever that this is possible even at the pro and the college level. Basketball players are turning into tight ends, pitchers are turning into quarterbacks, and even former soccer players like Ziggy Ansah have all found a way to parlay their athleticism into another sport. Players like Antonio Gates, Jimmy Graham, Russel Wilson, and even Brandon Weedon have all played another sport before they found their home in the NFL.
Current Stanford wideout Jordan Pratt is aiming to be the one to make that transition. Pratt, a former Great Lakes Loons pitcher who enjoyed an 8 year career in baseball, is now a starting Wide Receiver for the Rose Bowl bound Stanford Cardinal. In high school Jordan earned all-state honors as a senior but chose to pursue his first love of baseball and was absorbed into the LA Dodgers farm system. Unfortunately tendonitis forced the young ballplayer to end his career on the diamond. His firey competitive spirit was not satisfied yet and he decided that he would go back and try his hand as a wide receiver.
I got an opportunity to speak with the Cardinal’s receiver at the Stanford media day and I asked the young man what the transition was like. He said one of the toughest transitions was going back to being a full time student and managing his time accordingly. This same issue is one that all college students face, however with him being 8 years removed from an academic environment it was something that he wanted and had to learn all over again.
We then discussed what it was that made him want to come back and renew his football career. “I’m a very competitive person and I love playing ball…when my baseball career was over I knew I was going to go back to school, so that was the first thing that was on my mind and I knew that if my legs were young enough I would still give football a shot…I felt like i had some unfinished business since I sprained both of my ankles my senior year…there was a burning hole in my heart” For no direct reason Pratt had been a long time Cardinal fan and had a few hats growing up and he actually kept and cherished his letters from the school. “I think it was just the smart guys competing at the highest level, it was always appealing to me. I always prided myself on being a student athlete”.
Pratt said baseball was his favorite sport but “football man, there is nothing quite like walking out onto the field in front of 80,000 people under the lights or on Saturdays. So I think the energy and intensity of football is something I have always loved.”
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