Charles Barkley loves football, but only as a spectator. For years, the NBA legend has openly admitted that football and boxing are his two favorite sports because both require a certain level of courage to step onto the gridiron or into the boxing ring. While there’s no denying that Barkley was one of the most physical players in NBA history, football simply wasn’t his thing. In fact, he tried football for just one day before calling it a career.

“Well, I think I’ve told it so. I played football for one day. Then I realized that I was a coward. Football is for grown men,” said Barkley on CBS’ The NFL Today. “That’s why it is my favorite sport because you have to be a real man to play football. They put me on a defensive line, and I remember after one practice, as a coach, I just ran into another big old fat dude for two hours straight. That does not take talent.

“You know what he said to me? He said, ‘I’ll see y’all tomorrow.’ I said, ‘If you think I’m going to do this stupid stuff again tomorrow, you’re crazy.’ I did. I played football for one day, and I realized y’all are grown men. It takes a grown man because you can get hurt playing football. Football and boxing, to me, are my two favorite sports because I know it takes a special person to step on that football field or step in that boxing ring.”

Barkley was known for his physicality during his NBA career, but that wasn’t always the case throughout his basketball journey. As a high school junior at Leeds, Barkley was only around 5-foot-10 and didn’t even make the varsity basketball starting lineup. At the same time, however, the NBA legend weighed 220 pounds and had the build of a football player.

During his conversation with Shannon Sharpe in 2024, Sharpe even suggested that Barkley should have been a running back. However, Charles Barkley had already experienced football firsthand, albeit for just one day. During the same conversation, the NBA legend revealed how his friends made fun of him after he initially tried playing football.

“My friends make fun of me. I played football for one day…I said, you (football coach) made a mistake talking me (Barkley) into playing football because I played the one day and I just ran into, I said, I just ran into a guy full speed for like 2 hours. This is stupidest s**t ever,” Barkley told Sharpe in 2024.

But then again, his coach later reached out to him and his teammates and said, “I’ll see y’all tomorrow.” By then, however, Barkley had already decided that football wasn’t going to be his professional career. During the summer after his junior year at Leeds, Barkley grew to roughly 6 feet 4 inches and eventually played at around 250 pounds during his NBA career.

Ultimately, Barkley graduated from Leeds and spent his collegiate career at Auburn before the Philadelphia 76ers selected him with the fifth overall pick in the 1984 NBA Draft.

He went on to win the NBA MVP award in 1993 and earn 11 All-Star selections throughout his professional basketball career. Since his retirement, however, football has arguably become his favorite sport. And whenever he’s asked about playing football, Charles Barkley doesn’t shy away from acknowledging his one-day football career in high school.