Need further proof that playing multiple sports is a benefit, not a deterrent, for young athletes who dream of ultimately playing a single sport in college and beyond?
Jake Long is willing to offer his path as validation that specialization isn’t needed to achieve greatness in an athlete’s primary sport.
Long was a first-team All-Metro League performer for Lapeer East’s basketball team in 2001-02 and 2002-03. He was a second-team all-leaguer twice on the baseball diamond.
All he did was go on to star as an offensive lineman at the University of Michigan, become the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 National Football League Draft and earn four Pro Bowl berths.
That’s all.
“I feel like nowadays people try to specialize in one sport,” Long said. “I am against that all the way. I played all three sports. When I was being recruited for football, I sent in my tapes. Everybody knew what I could do on a football field. I had more football scouts come to my basketball and baseball games than I ever had to my football games.
“Basketball helped with my conditioning, running down the court and playing defense. Baseball, flipping your hips and hitting showed scouts for football the type of athlete I was and how coachable I was. It just broadens your horizons on different sports, how to be a different type of teammate, just the camaraderie and competition at every level.”
Long continued to play basketball and baseball throughout high school, even though his dream all along was to play football at Michigan. He said he had some interest from Division II colleges for baseball and Division III for basketball, but his football talent could take him to even greater stages.
He understood that the moment he joined the football team at Michigan, the time had come to put the other sports in his past.
“I really loved those two sports,” he said. “Not being able to play those two anymore after I got to college was a bummer. I miss those but, honestly, football was a full-time job. Every day of the year I was occupied with that. I was really excited to just focus on one and dive right into that.”
Lifelong friend Jake Weingartz remembers Long being the best athlete and biggest kid on any team when they were growing up.
“He was a really good athlete in general,” Weingartz said. “He was 6-foot-7, 290 pounds and was great on the basketball court. Playing baseball, he was a phenomenal batter. He set pretty much every school record at Lapeer East hitting-wise.”
At Michigan, Long became a starter at offensive tackle in the third game of his redshirt freshman season in 2004, earning freshman All-America and second-team All-Big Ten Conference. Following an injury-plagued 2005 season, Long became truly elite by earning first-team All-America and Big Ten Offensive Lineman of the Year in 2006 and 2007.
Playing for Michigan was everything he hoped it would be as a lifelong fan of the Wolverines.
“Coming out of the tunnel is one of the most energetic things you’ll ever do,” Long said. “Being able to run out to 110,000-plus people with all your closest friends on the team, being able to touch that banner so many people have touched, so many great players, to be part of that tradition is really hard to explain, but it’s magical.”
Long expected to be a first-round draft pick when he left Michigan, but had no clue he would eventually go No. 1 overall to the Miami Dolphins. He was projected to go in the top 10, then began to move into the top five.
Then came a fateful phone call about a week before the draft.
“I got a call from my agent,” Long said. “He said, ‘You need to pack up. You’re flying to Miami tomorrow.’ I said, ‘I’ve been out there two times already. Why am I going out there now?’ He said, ‘They’re drafting you and are going to sign you tomorrow.’ That was four or five days before the draft. That’s the first time I thought it was possible.”
Having a contract secured with the team that held the top pick made Long’s experience more chill while he was in New York for the pre-draft festivities.
“All the other guys there, the other five guys with me, they were all kind of stressing out, because they didn’t know where they were going,” Long said. “I got to relax and soak it in. It’s the first time I’d ever been to New York. I got to go there and really enjoy it.”
On his big day, about 100 people gathered at the Lake Inn in Lapeer for a draft watch party. Long made sure to call shortly before the draft and again afterward to thank everyone for their support and make sure everyone was having a good time.
He had just signed a five-year, $57.5-million contract and was heading to South Beach, but the money and the status wasn’t going to change the Jake Long everyone in Lapeer knew.
