"That was the end of my baseball career" - Troy Aikman recalls failed $200,000 Mets deal that fueled NFL Hall of Famer's football odyssey

Troy Aikman is an NFL Hall of Fame quarterback. There is an alternate reality where he went into baseball. He was heavily recruited coming out of high school and he very nearly went into the minor leagues, but an unwillingness to meet his asking price on the part of the New York Mets sealed the deal.

He was poised to attend Oklahoma University, but the Mets wanted to know what they had to do to get his signature. The former Dallas Cowboys QB recalled the story via Tulsa World:

"They called me up the night before and said, 'Hey, we gotta know, what's it going to take for you to sign.' I was 17 years old, and I had no agent. My dad had treated me like a grown man from the time I was six, he just said do what you want."

He continued:

"I said $200,000 is what it's going to take. I didn't even know what $200,000 was at that point, and he said, '$200,000?! Daryl Strawberry doesn't even make $200,000! I said, 'Well, if you want me, that's what it's going to take.' He said, 'You have a nice career at Oklahoma.' That was the end of my baseball career."

That put an end to the playing days of Aikman, who would go on to star at Oklahoma and land a job with the Cowboys and eventually make the Hall of Fame.

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Troy Aikman was a dual-sport athlete

There are quite a few players who played both baseball and football. The barrier between them is evidently not that big, since so many NFL stars also got drafted in the MLB.

Troy Aikman nearly played baseball

That includes Russell Wilson, who has spent some Spring Trainings with the New York Yankees, Tom Brady, Kyler Murray and evidently Troy Aikman as well. Most of them eventually choose the NFL.

This is prbably partially influenced by how difficult it is to make it to the MLB in comparison. NFL stars who get drafted end up on a team basically right away. It's years before a first-round MLB draft pick makes it to their team.