Professional athletes usually stick to just one sport throughout their life. However, there exist a few Olympians who have traded their usual sport for the thrill of the National Football League. Milt Campbell, Jim Hines, Tommie Smith and Jim Thorpe are some track and field Olympians who have briefly played in the NFL. In fact, 1964 100m Olympic gold medalist Bob Hayes also won the Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys, the only Olympian to achieve this feat till now. Walking into similar shoes, another Olympian and 3x U.S. national hurdles champion Devon Allen has now made his professional NFL debut.

Allen was only the second Olympian to debut in the NFL this season after Marquise Goodwin, who made his professional debut for the Cleveland Browns. He also featured in the long jump discipline at the 2012 London Olympics. This makes Devon Allen the 44th Olympian in NFL history to play a professional football match in the NFL regular season and recently the hurdler also revealed why he switched over to football.

Why did Devon Allen trade his spikes for football cleats?

Devon Allen became the U.S. men’s 110m hurdles champion in 2014, 2016 and 2018. While he was in college, Allen not only practiced track and field but also played football as a wide receiver for the University of Oregon. Later on, he represented the United States in the finals of the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where he finished fifth and fourth respectively in the 110m hurdles. But Allen loved football equally and wanted to explore the sport further and it was in April 2022 that the Olympian impressed some NFL scouts and was eventually signed by the Philadelphia Eagles.

However, Allen had mostly featured in the practice squad of the Philadelphia Eagles, but before their recent game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Olympian was promoted to the team’s active roster. X user Rori Dunk also posted a tweet accompanied by Allen’s comment about his NFL debut that read, “Since I was 5 years old I’ve been dreaming of playing in the NFL.” 

After the game, Allen also highlighted that his NFL journey has not been a straight path but that has not diminished his passion for the game and he remains excited for his future NFL journey. Moreover, Devon Allen is not the first Olympian to switch sports and more than 25 years ago, basketball legend Michael Jordan also rocked the sporting world when he left basketball for another sport.

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Michael Jordan’s brief stint with baseball

Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls had secured an NBA three-peat in 1993 after winning the league in 1991,1992 and 1993. But soon after the 1993 season, Jordan shocked the sporting world by abruptly retiring from basketball and announcing that he would be playing baseball, which was also his childhood dream.

However, Jordan never played in the Major Baseball League and signed his first Minor League Baseball contract with the White Sox. The Olympic gold medalist played around 127 games for the Birmingham Barons, which was a Double-A minor league affiliate team of the White Sox.

Jordan played minor league baseball for a year, before finally returning to the NBA in 1995. As for Devon Allen, since the hurdler joined the Philadelphia Eagles, he has been juggling his track and field career and with just a few months to go for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Fans are eager to see if Allen will once again grace the track or stick to the football pitch. The question remains to be unanswered and only time will tell what decision will the young prodigy make.

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