Josh Allen has spent his entire NFL career defying what a quarterback is supposed to look like. Now, a two-time Olympic gold medalist thinks that same frame could win him gold in a completely different arena. The sport isn’t flag football, and when Chris Lillis floated the idea, Allen didn’t exactly shut it down. In fact, he thought he could do it.

After all, like most athletes, Allen had Olympic aspirations as a child, having grown up watching some of the best compete. However, his switch to football meant that the likelihood he would ever win an Olympic medal was very low. That isn’t what Lillis believes, as the freestyle skier thinks that the 30-year-old NFL star would thrive as a bobsledder.

“I’ll tell you what, bobsled might be your ticket,” Lillis told Allen in an NBC New York interview. “Actually the push man. I mean, you’re pretty big. You’re pretty jacked. All you gotta do is, like, push as hard as you can, and then unless you’re the driver, then you just get in and tuck your head and hope you pushed hard enough.”

“But I could see bobsled for you maybe. I’ll tell you what, if you ever want to get out on the golf course, I’d love to, love to tee it up with you.”

The conversation stemmed from Lillis, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, wondering what sport Josh Allen would want to compete in at the Olympics. The 30-year-old quarterback put out several options, including swimming and golf. However, he revealed his main target would be the Winter Olympics.

“I’d want to do a Winter Olympics and maybe skeleton or luge or something like that,” Allen admitted. “I think a lot of weight there would be beneficial, right? Like just letting gravity take over.”

And when Chris Lillis suggested bobsledding, Allen grew rather excited. Not just that, he even seemed open to the possibility while also believing that he “could do it”. That’s not surprising, though, considering that Allen was a multi-sport star at the high-school level. He thrived on his school’s basketball team as their leading scorer and was also a pitcher with a 90mph fastball.

It’s one of the reasons why the now 30-year-old never got a scholarship out of high school. He wasn’t a widely known prospect, as his focus was all over sports. Once he locked in and locked down, that changed completely. After all, like most multi-sport athletes, Josh Allen tried his hand at winter sports.

He grew up skiing and snowboarding, doing it until he was in the seventh grade when he broke his hand. That’s when everything changed for Josh Allen and his family as his father sat him down and laid down the law.

“I looked at my dad, and he said, ‘Son, if you wanna continue to play football and baseball and basketball, you can’t do this anymore.’ So I kind of cut it out cold turkey after that,” Allen revealed.

That clearly worked out for the 30-year-old, who now holds four NFL records, won the 2024 MVP award and countless other honors. While he still hopes to get back on the slopes someday, Chris Lillis knows better than most what it takes to turn an Olympic dream into reality. 

Chris Lillis reveals he always wanted to be an Olympian

For many, Christopher Lillis has become one of the best freestyle skiers around, even though it has barely been a decade since the 27-year-old made his debut. At 17, he was the youngest man ever to win an FIS Aerials World Cup race. That built into the hype going into the 2022 Olympics. However, Lillis struggled in the individual event, placing sixth in the men’s aerials.

He did walk away with a gold medal in mixed-team aerials, and that set the tone. The now 27-year-old has often thrived in team events, retaining his gold medal at the 2026 Milan Olympics. Once again, he struggled in the individual event, finishing eighth before winning gold in the mixed-team aerials with new teammates.

It made him one of the more successful stars in the sport, which has always been his goal. In fact, for the 27-year-old, from the moment he saw his older brother thrive on the slopes, becoming an Olympian was all he could think about. Then, at age 10, Jeret “Speedy” Peterson, as well as Hannah Kearney and Jeremy Bloom, inspired him to do it.

“It starts out as a pipe dream, and then as you train and as you compete and get to higher-level events, it just kind of becomes a little bit more real, you know?” Lillis told WXXI News in January 2026. “And so every step, every new trick, every new competition, every rung up the ladder you go, that dream just becomes a little bit more of a reality.

“But I would say that I really can’t remember any time that I thought that I wouldn’t become an Olympian. Just kind of always thought that that was going to be my life’s passion, and was fortunate enough and lucky enough to make it happen.”

Whether Allen ever swaps shoulder pads for a bobsled remains unlikely, but Lillis clearly believes the tools are already there. For now, the Olympic dream will have to stay a conversation rather than a career change.