Video – Pete Carroll on Nate Robinson: it’s “All but impossible”
By Keith Myers
Video: Pete Carroll comments on the tryout of for NBA point guard Nate Robinson, calling his attempted transition to football “all but impossible.”
It was a cool story while it lasted, but Nate Robinson isn’t going to be playing in the NFL. In the video above from Sports Illustrated, Pete Carroll called the transition “all but impossible.”
Robison is a former NBA point guard who spent last year playing in Israel. Now he’s trying to switch to football, but is finding that the NFL simply isn’t interested. The Seahawks were the only team to give him a tryout, and the team clearly came away less-than impressed.
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The move to football wasn’t a completely crazy idea though. Robinson was a high school football star. He attended the University of Washington on a football scholarship and was a starter for the Huskies as a true freshman.
Robinson quit football to focus on basketball as a sophomore. It was a move that worked out Robinson financially, but Pete Carroll said that it is too late to undo that decision.
It should be noted that this is coming from the perpetually optimistic Carroll. This is the guy that refuses to say anything negative about anyone. For him to have such a definitive statement on Robinson is significant.
Honestly, I think it would have been really cool if this had worked out. Robinson is a bit of a local legend, and it would have been really fun to cover him during training camp.
If we’re truly rooting for Robinson though, Seattle was never going to be a good fit for him. He’s only 5 ft 9 inches tall. Despite his abnormally long arms he still lacks the length that the Seahawks require their defensive backs to have.
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The Seahawks also have great depth in the secondary. There was no realistic way they were going to keep a 32 year old project over a young player that is ready to contribute right away.
It was a fun story, and it ended too early. That’s the NFL.