Dallas Cowboys’ former legendary quarterback Troy Aikman almost became a professional baseball player instead of an NFL Hall of Famer, and it all came down to one phone call the night before the MLB draft.

“When they called me, it was the night before the draft,” Aikman recalled on the Your Dark Companion podcast. “He said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to know what you’re going to take. What it will take for you to forego going to Oklahoma and playing football and sign with us professionally.’ And I really had no idea.

“I said, ‘I’ll take $200,000.’ Why that number? I have no idea, but I said $200,000, and he said, ‘$200,000?’ Darryl Strawberry, who was their best player at the time, doesn’t even make $200,000.

“And I said, ‘Well, if you want me, that’s what it’s gonna take.’ And he said, ‘Have a great football career.’ That was the end of my baseball career.”

Aikman basically asked to be paid what New York’s top outfielder was earning. That was not a small ask from a teenager.

But his baseball talent was real, too. At Henryetta High School in Oklahoma, Aikman earned All-State honors in both football and baseball, playing shortstop and pitcher. The Mets were not taking a flyer on him. They genuinely wanted him.

He chose football instead. Aikman honored a scholarship commitment to the University of Oklahoma under head coach Barry Switzer and became the first freshman to start at quarterback for the Sooners since World War II. A broken ankle his sophomore year changed everything, though. He eventually transferred to UCLA, where he won the Davey O’Brien Award as a senior.

Looking back, Aikman has made clear he doesn’t view that decision as a gamble he got lucky on. Speaking to young players years later about chasing their own dreams, he said:

“I saw a number of players come through the Cowboys that had great talent, and they weren’t willing to do what’s necessary to be great. That’s their choice, but oftentimes, what happens is when they get my age, they look back on what could have been, and they have big regrets for not giving it everything they have.

“If it’s what you want and it’s your dream to be in the big leagues, make sure you don’t look back when you’re my age and have any regrets.”

For Aikman, baseball was never one of them.

The rest speaks for itself. He went first overall to the Dallas Cowboys in the 1989 NFL Draft, won three Super Bowls, earned Super Bowl XXVII MVP honors, and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006.