Another ominous MLB update came on Monday when commissioner Rob Manfred said he isn’t confident there will be a season.
No sweat for Bryce Harper.
The Phillies’ outfielder is ready to take his talents across the street to Lincoln Financial Field.
This isn’t the first time Harper brought up the possibility of playing football. Here’s what he said on Lane Johnson’s “Outside the Lane” show on Friday night:
“I was thinking, ‘man, if baseball doesn’t come back, I’ll go play for the Eagles.’”
While Harper obviously isn’t going to play for the Eagles in 2020, it is fun to think about what position he would play in the NFL. At 6-3, 220 pounds, he definitely has the size to play football.
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In fact, Harper grew up in Las Vegas playing fullback and outside linebacker.
“Oh yeah,” Harper said when asked if he got after the passer. “I lined up kind of like Lawrence Taylor on the outside. I’d rush sometimes and I’d drop back into coverage too.”
In order to play in the NFL, Harper might need to put on some pounds, but he’s close to being the right size for a modern era NFL linebacker. Check out how his measurements stack up to the current crop of Eagles linebackers:
Bryce Harper: 6-3, 220
Jatavis Brown: 5-11, 221
T.J. Edwards: 6-2, 242
Nathan Gerry: 6-2, 230
Duke Riley: 6-2, 18
Alex Singleton: 6-2, 240
Davion Taylor: 6-2, 230
Shaun Bradley: 6-1, 240
“I think my first love was football growing up,” Harper said. “I loved the Friday night lights and coming out of the tunnel and having that rah, rah, let’s go mentality, which you kind of can’t have in baseball. You gotta be even keel and not really get too fired up. Football was the total opposite for me.
“But being able to get into baseball and really understand what was going to work for me. And realizing that football in Vegas wasn’t the biggest sports in Vegas like it was down South or in Texas or anywhere else.”
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