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By Lyle Fitzsimmons - Here’s a little advice for the wannabe world-class athletes out there.
If your choices are down to a career in boxing or a career in football, make it easy on yourself.
Take football.
“In my opinion, football is easier. Way easier. And it’s not even close,” said former NFL running back Dorsey Levens – a veteran of 144 games, an All-Pro selection and a world championship win over an 11-season gridiron career between 1994 and 2004.
“I’ve only tried it in the ring a few times and I knew right away that it was not a good place for me.”
The 40-year-old Levens, a product of Georgia Tech, established himself as a go-to member of Brett Favre’s Green Bay backfield through 2001, including a defeat of the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI at the Superdome in New Orleans in January 1997.
He gained a career-best 1,435 rushing yards as the Packers returned for a Super Bowl loss against Denver a year later, then scored a personal high of nine touchdowns in 14 games – sixth-best in the league – in a 1,034-yard season behind Favre in 1999.
He played for the Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants and the Eagles again over his final three seasons, finally walking away for good in 2004 after coming to grips with the idea he’d lost a step.
He officially retired as a member of the Packers in 2006.
“I’d lost something. No question,” Levens said. “There’s a difference between just hearing it from other people and knowing it yourself. I realized it and was able to tell myself, ‘OK, you’ve had a good run but your time is up. It’s time for the next venture.’”
Among his pursuits since quitting have been the typical (NFL game analyst), the atypical (stage/movie actor) and the unpredictable (wide-eyed boxing gym rookie).
The latter prolonged a love of the sport that began when he followed Sugar Ray Leonard and Mike Tyson as a teen-ager, then participated in and hosted frequent pay-per-view parties with other NFL players in the ’90s.
“Living in Atlanta and having so many current and former players around, that was always one of our biggest things,” he said. “We always looked forward to the next fight coming up, because it would mean someone was going to have a party and we’d all get together.
“There’s nothing out there right now that really intrigues me, but I just wish Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. would hurry up and get it on already.” [Click Here To Read More]
If your choices are down to a career in boxing or a career in football, make it easy on yourself.
Take football.
“In my opinion, football is easier. Way easier. And it’s not even close,” said former NFL running back Dorsey Levens – a veteran of 144 games, an All-Pro selection and a world championship win over an 11-season gridiron career between 1994 and 2004.
“I’ve only tried it in the ring a few times and I knew right away that it was not a good place for me.”
The 40-year-old Levens, a product of Georgia Tech, established himself as a go-to member of Brett Favre’s Green Bay backfield through 2001, including a defeat of the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI at the Superdome in New Orleans in January 1997.
He gained a career-best 1,435 rushing yards as the Packers returned for a Super Bowl loss against Denver a year later, then scored a personal high of nine touchdowns in 14 games – sixth-best in the league – in a 1,034-yard season behind Favre in 1999.
He played for the Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants and the Eagles again over his final three seasons, finally walking away for good in 2004 after coming to grips with the idea he’d lost a step.
He officially retired as a member of the Packers in 2006.
“I’d lost something. No question,” Levens said. “There’s a difference between just hearing it from other people and knowing it yourself. I realized it and was able to tell myself, ‘OK, you’ve had a good run but your time is up. It’s time for the next venture.’”
Among his pursuits since quitting have been the typical (NFL game analyst), the atypical (stage/movie actor) and the unpredictable (wide-eyed boxing gym rookie).
The latter prolonged a love of the sport that began when he followed Sugar Ray Leonard and Mike Tyson as a teen-ager, then participated in and hosted frequent pay-per-view parties with other NFL players in the ’90s.
“Living in Atlanta and having so many current and former players around, that was always one of our biggest things,” he said. “We always looked forward to the next fight coming up, because it would mean someone was going to have a party and we’d all get together.
“There’s nothing out there right now that really intrigues me, but I just wish Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. would hurry up and get it on already.” [Click Here To Read More]
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