Drake London concluded his true freshman USC football season on December 27 with a game against Iowa in the 2019 Holiday Bowl. He made his college basketball debut just nine days later.
The time in between was nothing short of a whirlwind, with London swapping shoulder pads for sneakers and using a few drills to get in sync with the USC men’s basketball team. Less than a week after his last football snap, he was on a plane bound for the Pacific Northwest and was soon playing in Washington.
London happily made a crazy transition that is extremely rare, where an athlete is talented enough to play two sports at a major college level.
USC recruited London out of Moorpark High School in Southern California to play football and basketball and received offers from both teams. He accepted the football scholarship and was effectively a substitute for the basketball team, allowing him to pursue two dreams at once.
This doesn’t happen often anymore, if at all. Multi-sport athletes often specialize after high school, if not before, to focus on the sport they love most or that best suits their talents.
London was so good at football and basketball that he pursued parallel paths. His basketball journey finally ended in December 2020 when he decided to focus on football for several reasons.
Although it was difficult to give up the sport he originally loved, London made the right choice.
He was excellent on the gridiron, so good in fact that he was named the 2021 Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year despite missing four games with an ankle injury. Then the Falcons made him the first receiver taken at No. 8 overall in the 2022 NFL Draft. He continues to rise at the NFL level as a true No. 1 receiver.
“I always wanted to be the kid that made it to a league, no matter what league it was,” London said. “I was lucky enough to make it to the NFL. And at some point I wanted to be lucky enough to make it to the NBA. I did everything I could to achieve these goals.”
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