So it’s maybe not a surprise to hear that when Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers visited a Kansas basketball practice last month, Jayhawks coach Bill Self said Rodgers wanted to have 6-9, 260-pound Black in for a tryout.
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“(Rodgers) said, ‘I want to try that guy at tight end,’” Self said in comments on his weekly Hawk Talk radio show, transcribed by the Lawrence Journal-World. “I said, ‘Tight end? He can’t go across the middle and get hit.’ But then I started thinking about it ... they (NFL teams) love to have basketball players. He (Rodgers) said, ‘I want to throw balls at him and see what he can do.’ Certainly (Black) is a phenomenal athlete for his size.”
There have been plenty of success stories of college basketball players turned NFL-caliber tight ends. The Denver Broncos’ Julius Thomas played football and basketball at Portland State, and recently retired Atlanta Falcons star Tony Gonzalez did the same at Cal. Antonio Gates has carved out quite a career for himself with the San Diego Chargers after playing basketball at Kent State.
Black has dealt with an ankle injury in recent weeks, but played 23 a season-high minutes in Tuesday’s 69-52 win over Baylor.
The good news is he had only three fouls in that game, or an average of only one every seven-plus minutes. That’s better than 1-in-every-4.
