Good Thing Matt Holliday Chose Baseball Over Football

We know about Deion Sanders, Bo Jackson, and Brian Jordan, who all played in the NFL in addition to MLB. Josh Booty was a top pick by the Marlins and wound up playing football at LSU. Joe Mauer had a scholarship offer to play quarterback at Florida State but he chose to become the first pick in the baseball draft instead. Rockies stud outfielder Matt Holliday was no exception to this frequent trend in sports. However, it wasn't until I read Kelli Anderson's article "Twin Peaks" in Sports Illustrated that I found out how good of a football player Matt Holliday was. From the article:

Holliday was such a hot quarterback prospect at Sillwater (Okla.) High, where he broke several of Troy Aikman's state passing records, that Kansas City Chiefs G.M. Carl Peterson sent him a letter during his senior year begging him to choose football over baseball. Holliday was recruited by Notre Dame, Tennessee, Florida State, and Florida, but he signed a letter of intent to play quarterback at Oklahoma State, where he could also play baseball with his brother Josh, who is three years older, and for his dad, Tom, who was the Cowboys' baseball coach at the time.

Wow, I mean I've heard of guys being All-State and All-City players in several sports in high school, but breaking Troy Aikman's state records and getting recruited by an NFL G.M. while in high school is especially impressive. It looks like Matt Holliday made the right choice in pursuing baseball. He was an All-Star last year for the Rockies, hitting .326 with 34 home runs and 114 RBI. Through 19 games this year, Holliday is batting .382 and on a six-game hitting streak where he's gone 12 for 22 (.545). Stellar numbers like that will force you to take note of Matt Holliday in case you already haven't.