Jays reach agreement with talented Willson and hope he can develop into a major league talent.
Luke Willson wonders if he can have it all, but figures eventually he’ll have to make a choice.
Already, the 21-year-old from LaSalle, Ont., is developing into a pretty good NFL prospect as a tight end at Rice University. And although he hasn’t played regularly at an elite level since 2008, the Toronto Blue Jays believe enough in his potential as a baseball player to have signed him Aug. 25.
In the months ahead he will play both, unsure of which to pursue fulltime, hoping that just maybe he can somehow become the next two-sport star like Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders or Brian Jordan, that he won’t need to close the door on one sport or the other.
"I guess I do want to try, the thing is with baseball I’m a little behind because I haven’t been getting the at-bats," Willson says over the phone from Houston after morning class. "That would be something really special if I could do that, it would be pretty cool. But a lot of it is going to depend on how things go this year.
"If I could, I definitely will try."
Right now, Willson’s focus is on football.
A solid six-foot-five, 240-pounds, he led the Owls with 425 receiving yards on 33 catches, three of them for touchdowns, in 11 games last season, his first as a starter. He was a redshirt freshman in 2008, started a pair of games in 2009 and then broke out in 2010.
A big 2011 could set him up to do well in the NFL draft next April, and there is an appeal to going that route since draftees jump right in to the show, unlike baseball, where even the most advanced of draft picks require seasoning in the minors.
"I think that’s definitely a pro about football," says Willson. "I’ve been playing football almost every day here at Rice, and my goal is to play professional (sports), and I feel like I’m a lot more closer in terms of the football world."
Still, there are no guarantees on that front, which is why the Blue Jays stepped in.
Scouting director Andrew Tinnish saw Willson play baseball with the Canadian national junior team in 2008 and was very impressed by his raw power, but he was already committed to Rice for football by then. The stint with Baseball Canada, which actually delayed his arrival at camp with the Owls, piqued some baseball interest in him, but he went undrafted.
After that, Willson became "so immersed in football he slipped through the cracks" in baseball circles according to Tinnish, but late in May the Blue Jays’ head Canada scout, Jamie Lehman, after speaking to Baseball Canada’s Greg Hamilton, invited him to the Rogers Centre for a workout.
The power was still impressive and Tinnish came away thinking there was enough talent there to make a run at Willson worthwhile.
After he went undrafted again this past June, Willson and the Blue Jays started talking, eventually reaching an agreement. The baseball contract didn’t affect his eligibility to play football under NCAA rules and Tinnish understands that right now baseball is secondary for him, but signing him was like applying for building permits to have them in the event you’re able to get a piece of land you like but can’t quite get.
"Look, if this guy gets an NFL opportunity I’d say outstanding and I’d be cheering for him," says Tinnish. "Selfishly, we want him to play baseball, but we understand he has the potential to play in the NFL."
The deal is a low-risk, potentially high-reward one for the Blue Jays, landing them a talented yet raw athlete that in a sense fell into their hands.
Tinnish sees a lot to like about the first baseman.
"This is off the charts makeup, I’m talking as good as it gets," he says. "He’s a left-handed bat, plus power. We know he’s far behind in baseball, but with his makeup, we know how hard he’d work to catch up."
For now, Willson will work at baseball more often than he has in the past – he spent some time with Rice’s team in his freshman year and played in a Houston summer league afterwards – by taking regular swings but will devote the majority of his effort into football.
Rice’s season opens Sept. 3 in Austin against the University of Texas Longhorns and each of the Owls’ 12 games offers him a chance to up his stock in NFL circles.
It’s possible he does well, is chosen high, and focuses on football. Or perhaps he struggles, doesn’t fare well in the NFL draft, and reports to extended spring training once school wraps up and plays baseball. Or maybe he plays baseball in the spring, and returns to Rice for his fifth and final year of eligibility to put off the decision for another season.
"A lot of it depends on how this football season goes, it’s tough to say because there are so many different factors that can play into it," says Willson, who began high school focused on hockey before locking in on football. "Everything is up in the air, it’s kind of a unique situation, I could possibly see me trying to do both at one point, but probably sooner rather than later, I’ll have to focus on one of them and try to pursue that as a career."
Until then the Blue Jays can only wait and hope.
