Austin Rivers, son of legendary coach Doc Rivers started a football vs. basketball debate that has polarized the sports world. A vast majority of sports analysts ripped into him after his appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. One of those people joining the bandwagon is Ryan Clark of the Pivot Podcast. He’s got the support of Jason Kelce, who added more to the feud.

After seeing Ryan Clark’s remarks, Kelce took to X (formerly Twitter) and laid out his opinions. However, Kelce thinks there’s a certain NBA athlete who he will draft in a heartbeat no matter what people think about the debate.

Jason Kelce aligns with Ryan Clark and pegs this NBA athlete to flourish in football

The host of Pivot Podcast got a little fired up when he was addressing Austin Rivers following his controversial take. Per Clark, NBA athletes are not emotionally, mentally, or physically strong enough to take on the sport. Clark added that he might make a lot of basketball athletes re-think their career choices if they ever were to step onto the gridiron field.

Naturally, the SB-winning center agrees with Ryan Clark. He took to X and added his own comments upon reposting Clark’s video. Safe to say that Kelce thinks LeBron James can play football. “I love this argument and passion from Ryan, and as a football player my mind is screaming hell yea!!! But, if I was an NFL GM, and it was an option, I’d sign Lebron today and within one offseason he’d be the greatest redzone threat in the NFL,” said the retired Philly center on X.

His big stature, sports acumen, and 40k points in the NBA make more of a case for him to be suited to play football. Despite being 39, James has the physical toughness and mental prowess that will far surpass any current NBA player. But coming back to Ryan Clark, the former safety in him couldn’t refrain from challenging Rivers to play football against him.

The former Redskins veteran safety issues a warning to Austin Rivers

An interesting thing that Clark pointed out was that NBA players took pride in flopping. Flopping plays a technical part in an NBA game but has no place on the football field because it’s a tough sport with high physical contact. Moreover, he tried to point out what separates a football player from a basketball player.

“Nobody comes to play football who’s never played football before that’s a hooper. They’ve all played at some point in their life. Because building up who we have to be for football, that’s a callus that you have to build. Right, like it started at Oklahoma drills when I was 6 years old and we had no business doing it and I was the one person that ran to the front of the line because I love running people over,” said Clark.           

He then added, “If you get me when I’m on defense in this drill, I’m watching the line. And when you get back to the front, I’m skipping everybody. If I’m not lined up where you are..that’s a mentality bro that, you’re born with that and then you build on it each and every year.”                   

There are plenty of people willing to challenge Austin Rivers to a game of football. What position can Rivers play in the game is still a head-scratcher. One thing is for sure, footballers won’t budge on their opinion that basketball is a tougher sport.