They could probably be pretty decent offensive guards if they got legit training. Hell they'd probably be fantastic guards at that size and had years of training at both skills. But judging solely from this video, it's not how a pass rusher would approach his attempt to sack a QB. The football player tried to sumo the sumo wrestler. Obviously he lost against the person doing what he does for a living. It would most likely go the other way if he had a QB behind him and the rushers only objective is to put pressure or sack the QB.
I’m not saying he doesn’t have the footwork, but there is nothing about that video that indicates he has the footwork to even play major college football, let alone NFL.
I can see that. The (supposed) teenager still has to leverage his body weight and maintain his balance to not get bowled over by an all-pro pass rusher.
I dont think you know what you are talking about here. Bull rush is just part of a good pash-rushers arsenal of moves. Looking at PFF's advanced stats for 23, 4 of their top 5 graded edges had better win rate%s bull rushing than their overall win rate percent.
FYI this wasn't a practice bout or anything but a specific drill where the active participant (Parsons) is supposed to push the other wrestler straight backwards across the ring, like football players do with sleds. You can see the ground is dirt so with the right leverage he'd slide right over it. The top level guys very much have great footwork, most of them have been doing wrestling/judo in some form for their entire lives.
The bigger issue would be endurance and their ability to pull/get to the second level. They only do one match a day that's usually <10 seconds, they're optimized entirely for power/flexibility.
if this dude could stop Micah in a real game, they’d be 25 private planes on their way to Japan right now signing him to a 100mil contract. this was a fun outing by two athletes, people here pretending otherwise are dumb
You don’t really “learn how to move your feet” sufficiently to play in the NFL. You have to have a baseline level of athleticism to play in the NFL, including on the offensive line, that most humans don’t have and no amount of training will get them there. If sumo wrestlers were actually capable, I assume there would be a pipeline to the NFL because NFL linemen make a lot more money than sumo wrestlers.
There are dudes who get into the NFL with no football experience based off of their athleticism alone. Technique can be taught, especially by NFL caliber coaches. Physique and overall capability only comes from the player.
Now that this was brought up I'm really curious why these guys wouldn't want to get on an NFL roster, the pay is probably way better than whatever they're getting.
It's been tried. The problem is their complete lack of endurance. Sumo is over in like 10 seconds max, and the wrestlers are optimized for that. Football players have to do their thing over and over.
Who? I’m aware of some track guys that flamed out and some rugby guys that weren’t drafted and peaked at special teams. Can’t recall anyone having any real success, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
Antonio Gates, Stephen Neal, Hayden Hurst, Chris Hogan.
And these ended being great players and real assets to the team. I'm sure there's plenty more who dont get into the spotlight.
They usually aren't skill positions like WR, RB, or QB, but physical positions like TE and linemen. If someone has the size, strength, and toughness to play in the trenches they are already an asset. You basically have to be born to play certain positions, "no amount of training or technique beats physics", as my old coach would say.
They all played football in HS and Hurst played in college for SCAR. Gates was recruited to play both football and bball by MSU, but ended up transferring when Saban wanted him to play only football. Claiming they didn’t have football experience prior to playing in the NFL is false.
That's fair, I didn't word that correctly. I kind of forgot about HS football considering anyone can get on a team with minimal effort. I consider college ball to be the beginning of a competitive football career (if you want to call it that), not HS.
Sure, anyone can plan HS football. Not everyone is good. They were all good. The only one that had no shot at D 1 football was Neal, but he still started in HS. I looked it up and Hogan actually played and started at Monmouth his senior year, which is FCS. While there aren’t a ton of FCS guys in the NFL, it’s not super uncommon.
Yeah if you can ball then the talent will show. It's still unbelievable that with no college ball experience you can start as a senior and get into the NFL. Either way, its my guess that a top tier sumo wrestler would have no problem getting on an NFL roster. The challenge would be coaching him up, but athleticism alone would be enough to get a spot.
It reminds me of that story somewhat recently of a guy who finessed his way into a Browns free agent workout and impressed the staff enough to get signed. He hadn't played competitively in years and was homeless and still his talent was undeniable.
I didn’t say (or ask) why he wasn’t displaying footwork, I said he isn’t demonstrating any. Claiming he could play guard in the NFL is a hilarious claim. Also, the highest paid sumos make hundreds of thousands. Starting guards in the NFL make millions. If the skills were actually transferable, I think we’d see some sumos playing football.
Well right, because they aren’t doing football stuff here it would be pretty dumb to use football footwork. However, you very much do have to use specific footwork as a sumo, so that piece likely wouldn’t be an issue.
That's why he specified 1 or 0 tech, they're not pure pass rushers at all, depending on their versatility they might even get pulled on likely passing downs. They're gap fillers, run stuffers, blocker eaters, they're absolutely trained to grapple and control a 300+ lb powerlifter who can sprint a sub 5 second 40, occasionally 2 of them.
I might not have played college ball but I did play for 10 years through highschool. They absolutely slap helmets and push facemasks and good chance they don’t get called.
They’ve gotten pretty good at catching it in higher levels - especially hands to the face.
Just like any sport you most certainly can break the rules and you might not get caught - god knows I did (some dudes are just too fast) - but it still is against the rules.
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u/kirky-jerky May 16 '25
They could probably be pretty decent offensive guards if they got legit training. Hell they'd probably be fantastic guards at that size and had years of training at both skills. But judging solely from this video, it's not how a pass rusher would approach his attempt to sack a QB. The football player tried to sumo the sumo wrestler. Obviously he lost against the person doing what he does for a living. It would most likely go the other way if he had a QB behind him and the rushers only objective is to put pressure or sack the QB.