College basketball’s best offensive rebounder wants to be an NFL tight end

Baylor center Rico Gathers is not a man you want to mess with on the basketball court. At 6’8, 275 pounds, the senior is averaging nearly a double-double (12 points, 9.8 rebounds) this season for the Bears while leading Division I in offensive rebound rate.

For all of his ability, Gathers is essentially a throwback player whose game would have been a better fit in an earlier era. In the modern NBA, he’s an undersized power forward who can’t shoot or facilitate to the degree the contemporary positions demands. As such, Gathers has his eye on a new sport: football. And he’s ready to give the NFL a go.

Gathers will arrange private workouts with NFL teams following the completion of Baylor’s season, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Gathers hasn’t played football since he was 14 years old, but that won’t stop him from trying to catch on as a pro tight end.

Gathers is hardly the first player attempting to pull the transition -- and most happen to be tight ends. Tony Gonzalez played three seasons of basketball at Cal, where he put up 6.8 points per game for a Sweet 16 team as a senior. Antonio Gates was a star in the MAC, averaging 20.6 points and 7.7 rebounds per game at Eastern Michigan in 2003. Jimmy Graham played 120 games over four seasons at Miami, and Julius Thomas played four years at Portland State.

And don’t worry, Gathers already has all the equipment he needs to become a successful football player:

“During my free time, I work on my routes all the time,” he said. “I have my own football, my own cleats, I run 40s all the time. I think I’m ready.”

Delightful. The only proof we need is how he leveled this fan trying to give him a chest bump after he drained a buzzer-beater three earlier this week -- literally the first three-pointer he had attempted in four years of college basketball.

We’re sold. Get this man an NFL contract right now.