Drafted in the first round by the Yankees and in the third by the Rams, Dave Elmendorf, a consensus All-American in baseball and football at Texas A&M, faced a difficult choice in 1971.
Fortunately, he was an academic All-American, too.
"There was no way I was going to the big leagues and play right away," he recalled.
"But with the Rams, I could sign, and if I didn't make it, I could go back and play baseball."
The last time he'd faced a football-or-baseball option, Gene Stallings made a deal with the freshman out of Houston Westbury:
He could miss spring football only if he started right away in baseball, and the Aggies were "competitive," by Stallings' definition.