Written by Daniel Wolf

So, all week long, the media has been in a frenzy over comments that NBA Superstar and Cleveland Cavalier LeBron James made saying that he would be a great football player given enough time to commit to the training regime.

Many have said and written that this is insane, other have said that James would be a very good football player.

Then there are some like New Orleans Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey that have stated James wouldn't even be practice squad material.

To solve this hypothetical debate, I went to the one source that could help determine James's outcome as an NFL football player, and that source is Madden NFL 10.

In the create-a-player mode, I duplicated James' height and weight (he weight was increased to 270 because he would have packed on more muscle during his training for the NFL), and distributed specific player attributes according to what I thought are James's possible strengths and weaknesses in professional football would be.

James ended up with a overall rookie rating of 78.

Of course, James was made to be a tight end, since he would obviously want to be a playmaker on the offensive side of the ball, and his tremendous size puts him as a more pass catching tight end more than anything else.

So, the next step was to follow the lead of his State Farm commercial and sign him up with the Cleveland Browns (I also used the default rosters that you have when starting a new franchise.).

Please understand that due to time constraints, I was not able to play any games with James as a tight end, but instead I had Madden 10 simulate all the games, which tends to be rather accurate.

First up, is the preseason, and James finished with 11 receptions for 95 yards.

Nothing too spectacular in the preseason at all, but it was only the preseason.

Now to the regular season, where James had 59 receptions for 580 yards and three touchdowns.

A solid rookie season for James, where he had two touchdowns in one game versus the Green Bay Packers and his best game came against the Oakland Raiders where he had eight catches for 61 yards.

Unfortunately, his rookie performance was not enough to earn his the Offensive Rookie of the Year honor.

In year No. 2, James' performance in the preseason improved with 16 receptions for 167 yards and one touchdown.

During the regular season of year two, James amassed 55 receptions for 567 yards and four touchdowns.

With his stats falling slightly from his rookie year, James still showed consistency in year two and his best game was against the Cincinnati Bengals where he had eight catches for 91 yards and two touchdowns.

Granted this is only a video game simulation and these stats can vary every time there is another simulation, it still shows that after two seasons in the NFL, James is no where near the top-tier tight end talents like Dallas Clark, Tony Gonzalez, and Antonio Gates.

As James' career continued, here are some more stats from year three and beyond.

Year three James had 72 receptions for 785 yards and two touchdowns, with his best game against the St. Louis Rams with five catches for 116 yards and one touchdown.

Year four James had 66 receptions for 688 yards and four touchdowns, with his best game against the Pittsburgh Steelers with 10 catches for 133 yards and one touchdown.

Year five James has peeked for three straight years at an overall rating of 97. He had 59 receptions for 558 yards and four touchdowns, with his best game against the Baltimore Ravens with five catches for 57 yards and two touchdowns.

As you can see, the results of this little experiment show that James would be a good tight end in the NFL (no Pro Bowl appearances for James), but he would not be equal to the superstar level that he currently enjoys in the NBA.

Stick with basketball, because in the NFL, you will not be able to make anywhere close to the amount of money you are getting right now in the NBA.

In closing, I must say that this was a fun experiment but it did take about two hours to complete from the start of creating James in the game to finishing this article.

I hope you have enjoyed this little fantasy piece, because I know I did while going through the process!

(Article also posted on Dawg Scooper and Bleacher Report)