Vintage Ron Artest: His Plans for NFL and/or Professional Boxing

No, I’m not joking. Ron Artest is dead serious. Artest claims that he will pursue an NFL career once he is done with the NBA. He better hurry, because I don’t know too many people who have never played organized football that just jumped into a successful NFL career.

“I want to try out,” Artest said. “I don’t know if I’m going to play or they’re going to pick me. I’m going to play tight end. If I can make it, I’m going to do it. As a kid growing up, in my neighborhood (in New York), we didn’t have enough money for equipment. There are a lot of great athletes in my neighborhood, but you can’t afford to play on a football team because the equipment is very expensive.”

Well, he can afford the equipment now and he could probably even sell some tickets, but whether or not he could make the transition is an entire different ball game, literally.

Artest didn’t stop at football. He also said he would like to pursue a professional boxing career.

“We’re going to try,” Artest said. “You’ve got to have a good strategy, train right. The boxing, I’ve been training for three years. I’m definitely going to try. The worst thing that could happen is they say, ‘You (stink). ”

Although Artest is never the biggest guy on the basketball court, he would be one of the bigger guys in the ring. He is currently listed at 6’7", 260 lbs. That's similar to the size of the Klitschko brothers, who dominate the heavyweight division of boxing. They typically have a noticeable height advantage over their opponents.

If these comments came from anyone else, we could probably take them as a joke, but I’m sure Artest is 100 percent serious, in his own mind. I’m not sure he would make it as a tight end, but we have seen before that he can throw a punch.

What do you think he would be better at, boxing or football?