J.J. Watt does not have time for Austin Rivers’s foolishness. On Tuesday, the ESPN analyst told Pat McAfee that plenty of NBA players could make it in the NFL, but the reverse wasn’t true. Watt offered Rivers a tryout to prove it.
While trying to argue the best athletes in the world reside in the NBA, Rivers told McAfee, “I can take 30 players right now in the NBA and throw them in the NFL. You cannot take 30 NFL players and put them in the NFL.”
The three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year tweeted, “You don’t got a job in either right now, go head and try it.”
Watt then followed that up by saying, “For the record, I could absolutely not play in the NBA. 6 hard fouls is about all I could give you and call it a day.”
Rivers is probably correct that a number of super-athletic NBA players could make it at receiver or running back in the NFL, and there are a few big guys who could play offensive line. On the flip side, given the fine-tuned skills it takes to succeed in basketball, NFL players may not translate to the NBA. It’s not that he’s wrong, it’s the dismissive nature of his statement.
McAfee and Watt both pushed back hard. I’d imagine a number of NFL guys would agree with their assessment that Rivers was being disrespectful of the level of athleticism in the league.
