When Anthony Edwards was coming out of college, one of the questions people had about the Georgia standout was how much he actually loved basketball, as Edwards was never shy about talking about football as the sport he loved playing the most.
Four years into his career, where he’s improved every season to become one of the NBA’s top young stars and led the Timberwolves to the conference finals a year ago, those concerns are laughable in hindsight. He’s clearly been driven to chase greatness on the basketball court and put the work in needed to be not just a talented athlete, but an elite basketball player.
Even with it being pretty clear Edwards made the right choice to pursue basketball over football, the Timberwolves star still thnks about the sport that was his first love. In an upcoming ESPN feature with Justin Jefferson, where the two recreated the iconic Kevin Garnett and Randy Moss photo of the two Minnesota stars in each other’s jersey, Edwards insists he still could make the move to football and tells his friends regularly that he’ll do so “if I win a ring in the next 3-4 years.”
“If I win a ring in the next 3-4 years, I’m going to play football.”
Anthony Edwards says he could play in the NFL if he wins a ring in the next few years
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— ESPN (@espn) October 20, 2024
Jefferson, unsurprisingly, isn’t buying Edwards claim here and I think that will be how most react to it. I do buy that Ant earnestly believes he could play in the NFL, because that’s the kind of confidence required to be an elite athlete. I do not believe he will follow through on this plan even if he were to win a title in Minnesota in the next few years, not because he won’t think it’s possible, but if he seriously pursued it, his agent, accountant, and family would all band together to stop it from happening because he’d lose at least $50 million per year in guaranteed pay going from the NBA to the NFL and have a way higher injury risk. As for Timberwolves fans, they would be thrilled to have this potential stress because it would mean they finally were delivered a championship.