Dancing with the Stars

We've all seen the evidence that football players have done phenomenally well on Dancing with the Stars. All three football players who have competed on the dance floor have either come in first place (Emmitt Smith, season 3), or second place (Jerry Rice, season 2, and Jason Taylor, season 6). Now it seems that a fourth football player will put away his helmet and pads and don sparkly formal wear in the hopes of bringing home the mirror ball trophy.

In an interview with the St. Petersburg Times, the defensive tackle for the Oakland Raiders who just recently announced his retirement, Warren Sapp, said that he “might do that Dancing with the Stars.”

“Yeah, it's something that sort of came out of nowhere,” Sapp told the Times. “But I enjoy the idea of training for something else. My whole life has been football. I could hang out in L.A. for a few weeks. My daughter would love it. There's nothing wrong with my smile. I don't think I speak Ebonics. I think I will (do the show)."

I'm not really sure what Ebonics has to do with Dancing with the Stars, but I would be really interested to see how Warren Sapp would fare in ballroom dance. He doesn't exactly have what you would call a slim physique. According to ESPN.com, Warren Sapp is 6'2” and 300 pounds, which makes him a foot taller than me and approximately three times my weight.

To give you some comparison with the other grid iron players from the show, Jerry Rice is listed on ESPN.com as 6'2” and 200 pounds, Emmitt Smith is 5'10” and 216 pounds, and Jason Taylor is 6'6” and 255 pounds. This means that Warren Sapp is large.

Now, I'm no football expert, and I'm not exactly sure what kind of physique is best suited for each of the positions, but I do know that defensive tackles need to be big and strong. They have to explode out of their stance and try to penetrate through the offensive line as quickly as possible. So, the thing is, Sapp might be a huge, hulking presence on the dance floor, but he might also surprise us all by being quick and nimble. Actually, I'm told that he really is pretty light on his feet for his size, and ran a mean 40 yard dash for a defensive tackle when he was in his prime. He just might actually make a great dancer.

Warren Sapp, who began his career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, hosted his retirement party at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tampa, Florida. The 35-year-old boasts 96½ sacks, eight Pro Bowls and a Super Bowl championship.



-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
Source: St. Petersburg Times, ESPN.com
(Image courtesy of Getty Images)