MLB All-NFL Team: Tight End
–Ideal Size: 6’6”, 250 LBs
–Skills: Strength, speed, agility, hand-eye coordination
Backup Tight End: Giancarlo Stanton – 6’6”, 245 LBs
Choosing between Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge as starting tight end is like picking between Willie Mays and Ken Griffey Jr. to play center.
Stanton’s prodigious size and strength stand out among grown men. Imagine how he compared to scrawny high schoolers when playing baseball, football, and basketball alongside them.
Baseball was his sport. He’d hit 400-foot home run after 400-foot home run in high school. Each at-bat, fans, scouts, teammates – heck, even opposing teams – were anxious to witness Stanton’s next incredible moment.
The hype surrounding Stanton was not quite the same on the football field, but it was close.
As a senior wide receiver for Notre Dame High School, Stanton grabbed 29 passes for 745 yards and 11 touchdowns. Oh, and while also playing cornerback his senior year, he recorded 50 tackles and picked off five passes.
Had Stanton not signed with the Florida Marlins in the second round of the 2007 draft, he would have likely signed with USC to play baseball and football. Pete Carroll and Steve Sarkisian – head coach and assistant coach at USC at the time – never got to explore the football potential of the 6’6”, 215 pound Mike Stanton, despite how desperately they wanted to.
Had he stuck with football, Stanton would’ve eventually become a tight end, whether at USC or in the NFL. He’s the same height as Rob Gronkowski and Jason Witten, and his weight is in the same ballpark as those two legendary tight ends. Stanton is a good runner, and we know he can track the ball. Also, his wide receiver experience gives him route-running savvy.
Just when it seemed his football career ended after high school, he’s now come full-circle, playing tight end for the MLB All-NFL team.
Starting Tight End: Aaron Judge – 6’7”, 282 LBs
Judge gets the starting nod at tight end. He’s three years younger than Stanton, an inch taller, and close to forty pounds heavier. He’s also faster and still active in the outfield.
Judge may triumph Stanton in football experience as well.
As a senior at Linden High School in California, Judge caught 54 passes for 969 yards and 17 touchdowns. His size at wide receiver was vastly unfair. Strategy was hardly necessary; all the Linden High quarterback had to do was throw Judge a deep ball, and the 6’7” specimen would tower over whatever puny defensive back to reel in a long catch.
Judge was a desired man by a scroll of Division-One schools. Most notably, UCLA, Washington, Notre Dame, and Stanford. According to The Postgame, Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh lobbied the hardest to bring Judge aboard as a tight end.
He received offers from two famed tight end universities – Stanford being one, and Notre Dame the other. If Judge wanted to blossom as a TE and position himself as a first-round pick in the NFL draft, those would have been the places to do so.
The future Yankees superstar remained loyal to baseball, however. He went to Fresno State on a pitching scholarship and got drafted by New York in the first round three years later. He’s hit 119 home runs in 424 games and will soon be one of the highest-paid players in MLB. Baseball over football – Judge made the right choice.