The Seahawks recently gave former NBA player Nate Robinson a tryout. That appears to be the limit of the team’s interest in him, at least for now if not for good.
“I think it is all but impossible,” coach Pete Carroll told reporters on Tuesday regarding Robinson’s chances to make it in the NFL. “It is as hard as you can possibly get. He is 32 as well, I don’t know if anyone could do it, but if anyone could it might be Nate. He is a versatile athlete and a great competitor.”
Carroll nevertheless praised Robinson’s tryout, explaining that "[h]e looked really quick, caught the ball really well and he is an amazing athlete.”
If Robinson had opted for football over basketball, Carroll seems to think Robinson could have made it in pro football.
“He could play on both sides of the football back in the college days,” Carroll said. “There is no telling what kind of athlete he could have been at the position, whether he was a receiver or DB. I think he would have done both, but he is such a phenomenal basketball player he had to go that way and his heart was really there. Football was kind of his first sport he would tell you, but obviously basketball was a great avenue for him to follow.”
Carroll added that Robinson wants to “investigate his options” as he decides what’s next for his basketball career, whether that comes in the NBA or in another basketball league. If he chooses to further investigate the football option, Carroll thinks Robinson has “a lot of work to do.”
With an abundance of players a lot younger than Robinson who’ve already put in the work, it’s hard to imagine Carroll or any other team giving Robinson the option of playing on an NFL team.