Jalen Ramsey of the Jacksonville Jaguars told Mina Kimes in an ESPN The Magazine feature that given six months he could play in the NHL. On the surface it sounds crazy, but of course he could. Ramsey is one of the top athletes on the planet playing a mentally and physically demanding position. If you give him six months to work on skating there should be little doubt that he could make an NHL roster.
I’m not trying to convince you that Ramsey would be a star, but think about the skills needed to be an elite defensive back in the NFL. Ramsey needs to be a highly conditioned athlete with speed to be a DB. He has to be able to read a complicated offensive attack, react to the routes of receivers, anticipate throws to defend or intercept passes, and he has to be able to wrap offensive players up for tackles or big hits.
If you were going down the list of the skills a typical defensive defenseman needs, don’t most of the skills Ramsey needs to be a successful defensive back apply here? Defensive defensemen are asked to defend their own blueline, stand still on the penalty kill and use their sticks to break up plays. play a sound positional game, and in many cases tap the puck over to a more offensively talented partner who moves the play up the ice.
Given his mobility on the football field, with some development he could do more than just be a plug.
Skating would be an issue for sure, but even still how many of the “traditional” defensive defensemen are truly good skaters? Think about your favorite prototypical defensive defenseman – the guys who keep getting big contracts to play defense only. How many can skate at such a high level that you can be confident that one of the top athletes in the world couldn’t at least match their ability given six month of training?
It’s a silly question. Ramsey could do it. The better questions are why don’t athletes like Ramsey get exposed to hockey early so they can get into it, and why do so many Top Hockey Men insist on the exclusivity of the sport?
Some of the takes are patently absurd.
I would prefer to give my full season of NHL.tv money to pay for a pay per view of Ramsey training for six months with the ultimate goal of competing against Mark Spector in his Saturday morning skate. I’m not endorsing violence or encouraging it, but there is a non-zero chance that Spector would quite literally not survive after Ramsey trains for six months with time to get the timing of body checks down. Seeing his progression over a six month period would be worth every penny.
The backlash against Ramsey by a vocal portion of NHL fans is predictable and sad. Ramsey has the demeanor that makes games more fun. He has the kind of personality you love to root for when he’s on your team. He’s also the type of guy you want to shut up as an opponent. He makes things interesting by what he says, but nothing he says matters unless he can back it up.
He can back it up.
Predictably, the prevailing response by NHL fans is to act incredulous that a confident athlete with no experience playing their favorite sport could train a little then crack a roster. It’s worth noting, given the NHL’s recent continuing racial issues, that this is a confident black man making the claim too. I don’t think the majority of the responses to his claim are racist, but I do think it would be irresponsible to just ignore race outright.
What’s sad about this situation is that it gives the NHL a great promotional opportunity that you already know will never come to fruition. A prominent athlete from the most popular sport in America playing in a state with two hockey teams and another not that far away threw shade at the entire sport. Instead of accepting the challenge and turning it into a promotional opportunity it has been turned into a case of another “overconfident athlete spouting off”.
Let Ramsey prove it. Show the progress across all NHL and NFL platforms and across the SEC viewing area. Engage an entire area of the country by tracking the progress Ramsey makes learning to skate. At worst turn it into a promotional campaign centered around a light-hearted campaign of Ramsey picking up hockey skills. NFL, NHL, and College Football fans would eat it up.
Any NHL/NFL combo cities could get in on it. Who wouldn’t be amused seeing Ezekiel Elliot learn to forecheck or hurdle a defender going for a hip check/shot block? Everyone enjoyed watching Jamie Benn hit dingers in batting practice. The opportunities are as endless as your imagination. The Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers are sharing a cross-promotional series of nights. Imagine if the league at large tried the same based around this Ramsey challenge?
Jalen Ramsey has given the NHL a gift they are bound to waste. I would love to see him try to back up his claim. In all honesty the schadenfreude of watching so many people eat crow when he turns into a respectable NHL defenseman after six months is my main motivation, but the NHL would unquestionably benefit from the publicity too.
Let Ramsey prove it.
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