Jake Paul certainly is not someone who lacks confidence. Here’s a YouTube influencer who has now built himself into also being a professional boxer.
Now that he’s become successful in the ring too, Paul is eyeing another career move: the NFL. Can he pull it off? There are plenty of skeptics.
T.J. Houshmandzadeh Gets Honest on Paul’s NFL Dream
One critic who doesn’t think Paul has what it takes is T.J. Houshmandzadeh. The former Cincinnati Bengals Pro Bowl receiver revealed via the “Speakeasy” podcast that it wouldn’t take him long to determine whether Paul could compete in the NFL.
“Jake Paul, you may be right that you can do it,” Houshmandzadeh said. “I just need to see Jake Paul [for] five minutes, five minutes, and I’ll know right away because you can be fast; it doesn’t matter how fast you are, if you can’t stop… Deceleration is more important than acceleration… We gotta stop on a dime. If you can’t stop on a dime, I don’t care how fast you are.”
In other words, Houshmandzadeh says that even if Paul is quick, working on route refinement is a whole different ballgame. That takes time to master. It’s not all straight-line speed; players need to be able to, as Houshmandzadeh said, “be able to stop on a dime.”
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Is that something Paul could do, too? There’s no way to know, unless and until he gets out on the field.
Sometimes in sports, you either have what it takes or you don’t. Of course, some skills can be refined and developed over time. It’s what athletes spend the better part of their offseasons working on.
Then, there are other abilities that can’t really be toyed with. Many would argue that speed is one of those traits that, either you have, or you don’t.
Sure, techniques and approaches can be altered to maybe shave off a few seconds and increase slight rates of velocity, but Tom Brady could spend all the money and time he wanted; he wouldn’t be able to someday wake up and be as fast as Tyreek Hill. That’s just the way it is.
As for Paul? He’s already 29 years old; chances are, his best days are behind him. Trying to join the NFL now, after not playing college football or training hard for the sport for the past several years, would be a long shot. Yet, he’s encouraged to give it a go.
