Posted on 04/01/2013 10:23:34 AM PDT by the scotsman
'Britain's top discus thrower Lawrence Okoye is set to embark on a career in American football after attracting the interest of some leading NFL teams.
The 21-year-old, who stands at 6ft 6in and weighs 21st, finished 12th in the Olympic discus final in London last summer.
A former junior rugby union player, Okoye only took up discus in 2010.
"Just wanted to confirm that I have decided that I want to play American Football in the NFL," he tweeted.
Okoye attended a recent trial in Atlanta, Georgia during a break from warm-weather discus training, and has a second trial next weekend in Dallas.
If the expected move to the NFL goes ahead, he will miss the 2013 athletics season, including the World Championships in Moscow in August.'
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
6’6, 300 pounds of solid muscle (he has a six pack!), and yet runs an 11.2 second 100m. Insane.
Christian Okoye: The Nigerian Nightmare. One of the best Techom Bowl running backs of all time.
The Atlanta Falcons just signed Osi Umenyiora, who was born in England.
21 st = 294 pounds!.......
Maybe he can play quarterback and throw the ball like a discus.
LOL
That would be some throw to watch!.
Boy as a wide receiver he’d be a great big target and hard for them little defensive guys to bring down after a catch
As a consummate baseball fan I have often pondered, are there not enough boys living here in America that can play that we have to go to El Salvador, Cuba, and other places to get our players who cannot speak English? Irritates me on some level.
If you want the best you’ve got to broaden the talent pool.
I’m pretty certain there’s essentially no baseball played in El Salvador; it’s all soccer.
The reality is that in the Caribbean baseball is THE primary sport in terms of player interest (in the average American high school, it’s behind basketball and football). And they play far more baseball - absolutely nobody in the US is playing informal baseball as childen on a vacant lot, while everyone is in the Dominican Republic or Cuba.
We’ve been wussified. We play full contact tackle as a kid. Moms now a days would twist off if little Johnny got run over. That and those stupid, worthless video games.
I don’t buy that when you go from a country with 300 million to an island nation with 1/4 the population. I don’t like the whole global market that is what has gotten us where we are with illegals and trade deficits with China, trying to be one happy world family.
Its a commercial sports team. They’re going to want the best they can get from anywhere in the world. If you are going to limit your recruiting pool to 300 million instead of 7 billion, you are at a competitive disadvantage. Just the way it is.
So every afternoon they are out ... gasp ... playing. Baseball. Building "forts," running around like wild creatures shrieking their bloody heads off. It's just like freakin' AMERICA. Maybe a couple of'em will make it to the majors, just like these sandlot hustlers from the DR.
As far as the Mombasa MF goes (the pox upon him and Reggie) this is probably an unintended consequence of his social revolution for America.
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