{"id":27122,"date":"2026-03-17T23:44:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T23:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/more-than-the-score-charlie-ward-the-sporting-superhero-who-chose-the-nba-over-the-nfl\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T23:44:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T23:44:24","slug":"more-than-the-score-charlie-ward-the-sporting-superhero-who-chose-the-nba-over-the-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/more-than-the-score-charlie-ward-the-sporting-superhero-who-chose-the-nba-over-the-nfl\/","title":{"rendered":"More than the Score &#8211; Charlie Ward: The sporting \u2018superhero\u2019 who chose the NBA over the NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\">\n<p class=\"sw-text-body-copy sw-pt-4 sw-text-secondary\">Available for over a year<\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-text-body-copy sw-whitespace-pre-line sw-pt-4 sw-text-secondary\">To be an elite level star in one sport is a tremendous achievement, but to be it in two is quite remarkable. Charlie Ward won the Heisman Trophy in college football, before pursuing a career in the NBA rather than the NFL. He remains the only player to win college football\u2019s highest individual award and then play in the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>Ward tells the BBC\u2019s Ed Harry and Nesta McGregor about his background as a two-sport athlete. He says he made it known that if he wasn\u2019t drafted in the first round by the NFL, then he would pursue basketball &#8211; and that his stance didn\u2019t go down well in the NFL. Ward went on to enjoy an 11-year career in the NBA, with the New York Knicks, San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets. He\u2019s now the head coach for the Florida A&amp;M Rattlers basketball team and believes it would be harder for an athlete to play multiple sports in this era, while Nesta McGregor says athletes who can excel at multiple sports are the closest thing we have to superheroes.<\/p>\n<p>Every Monday to Friday, More than the Score tells stories beyond the scoreline from all over the world of sport. From Formula One to netball, MMA to figure skating, and Grand Slam tennis to Diamond League athletics. We&#8217;ve got interviews with extraordinary athletes like Winter Olympic legends Johannes Klaebo and Arianna Fontana, South African football icon Benni McCarthy and cricket superstar Smriti Mandhana, as well as the experts working behind the scenes, from football super-agents to the coaches keeping athletes in peak form. Plus, we&#8217;ve got the expertise of the BBC&#8217;s top journalists, who share their insights from decades of covering sport at all levels.<\/p>\n<p>And if you&#8217;ve got your own take on the stories we cover, we&#8217;d love to hear from you. Email morethanthescore@bbc.co.uk, or WhatsApp us on 0044 800 032 0470. You can find more information, along with our privacy notice, on our website: www.bbcworldservice.com\/morethanthescore<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/p0n7378w\" aria-label=\"Programme Website of Charlie Ward: The sporting \u2018superhero\u2019 who chose the NBA over the NFL\" data-testid=\"programme-website-link\" class=\"sw-group sw-inline-flex sw-items-center sw-pt-4\"><span class=\"sw-text-primary sw-font-bold sw-transition sw-ease sw-transition-colors sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none group-active:sw-text-accent group-active:sw-underline group-focus-visible:sw-text-accent group-focus-visible:sw-underline group-hover:sw-text-accent group-hover:sw-underline sw-text-brevier\">Programme Website<\/span><default:svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"16px\" height=\"16px\" viewbox=\"0 0 32 32\" class=\"sw-ease sw-transition motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-duration-350 sw-transition sw-ease sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-ml-2 sw-ml-1 sw-inline-block sw-fill-accent\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><default:path d=\"M21.9,16.9v11.5H3.7V10.2h11.1V7.6H1V31h23.6V16.9H21.9z M18,1v2.6h10.2l-0.5-1.1L11,19l1.9,1.9L29.6,4.3l-1.2-0.5V14H31V1 H18z\"\/><\/default:svg><\/a><button class=\"sw-group sw-text-pica sw-block sw-w-fit sw-pt-4\"><span class=\"sw-text-primary sw-font-bold sw-transition sw-ease sw-transition-colors sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none group-active:sw-text-accent group-active:sw-underline group-focus-visible:sw-text-accent group-focus-visible:sw-underline group-hover:sw-text-accent group-hover:sw-underline sw-mr-0.5\">Show less<\/span><default:svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"0.75rem\" height=\"0.75rem\" viewbox=\"0 0 32 32\" class=\"sw-ease sw-transition motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-duration-350 sw-ml-1 sw-mt-1 sw-inline-block sw-fill-accent\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><default:path d=\"M0 18L16 0l16 18z\"\/><\/default:svg><\/button><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/play\/p0n7378w?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Available for over a year To be an elite level star in one sport is a tremendous achievement, but to be it in two is quite remarkable. Charlie Ward won the Heisman Trophy in college football, before pursuing a career in the NBA rather than the NFL. He remains the only player to win college [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27124,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27122\/revisions\/27124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}