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Don’t get me wrong I love two-sports stars as
much as the next guy. I enjoyed watching Bo Jackson slam a 400 foot
home run in Kansas City and then bowl over Brian Bosworth in the NFL.

But in the end, Bo was lucky that he is still able to walk, after a
career ending injury in the NFL, and one wistfully thinks about the
career that might have been in baseball. There have been others like
Danny Ainge, Deion Sanders or Michael Jordan who have tried the same
thing with different degrees of success. Still, no one has been highly
successful at juggling two different and distinct careers in pro
sports, what makes us think that Tom Zbikowski is the exception to the
rule?
Zbikowski is a gifted athlete no doubt, but
does the pursuit of a professional boxing career hurt his chances of
becoming a premier safety in the NFL some day? Sure he was a 3^rd
string All-American a few years ago. Yes, he anchors and is captain of
a Notre Dame defense that was mediocre at best last season. And yes, he
did it all while pursing a boxing career. After 90 fights as an amateur
in which he won 75, "Ziggy" turned pro. Thanks to an NCAA rule that
allows him to do so and keep his football eligibility, he had his first
pro fight at Madison Square Garden in the spring of 2006. 

But after putting on weight for boxing, and
later injuring his shoulder playing football, Zbikowski’s season was
not up to par with his 2005 effort. He went from having 5 pickoffs to
not getting any last year, and his punt return average dropped 5 yards.
The whole season was a marked disappointment for the hard nose safety,
who admits that at times he was not as hungry out on the football field
as before. Did he lose some of that edge to the boxing ring?  You bet.

 So he is back for his senior season. He says he
is hungry again. He says that he has something to prove to himself. He
says this has nothing to do with raising his stock for the NFL draft,
though in part, that is hard to believe. Yet we want to believe him. We
want to believe that he has in part learned his lesson out on the
boxing ring and that he is ready to settle into what he does best,
which is anchor the defensive backfield for Notre Dame. Let’s hope then
that boxing hasn’t ruined one of the best safeties in the college game.