Kyler Murray’s football career should be winding down over the next month as the Oklahoma Sooners quarterback is expected to join the Oakland Athletics in spring training in 2019.
Murray was drafted by the A’s in the first round of the 2018 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft and said he would give up football after playing this season with the Sooners.
But, after an electrifying season that saw Murray eviscerate opposing defenses on his way to becoming a Heisman Trophy finalist, the 21-year-old might be eyeing a more exclusive path.
“I’d like to do both (football and baseball) if possible,” Murray told reporters Friday, via Sports Illustrated. “But I don’t know how possible that is.”
Murray was the most exciting player in college football this season and his success has many thinking he could reverse course and choose the NFL over the MLB. The 5-foot-9 signal-caller led the Sooners to a College Football Playoff berth while throwing for 4,053 yards and 40 touchdowns and rushing for 892 yards with 11 scores. Murray currently holds the Football Bowl Subdivision (Division 1) record for best passer efficiency rating in a season.
He is up against Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins and Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa for the Heisman Trophy, which will be presented Saturday night.
Murray also was the star centerfielder on Oklahoma’s baseball team, hitting .296 with 10 home runs. He received a $4.6 million signing bonus from the A’s with the expectation that this would be his last season on the gridiron. But after a campaign that could see him enshrined as college football royalty, Murray might want to try to have his cake and eat it too.
Oklahoma will face Alabama on Dec. 29 in the Orange Bowl, with the winner advancing to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
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