AJ McCarron Details End of Baseball Career

A.J. McCarron was a superstar quarterback at the University of Alabama, winning three national championships and three SEC championships during his time in Tuscaloosa.

Get our free mobile app

but did you know, McCarron was supposed to play baseball at the University of Alabama?

McCarron recently told McCready and Siskey, a podcast featuring former Alabama and Ole Miss assistant coach Tyler Siskey and SEC beat writer Neal McCready about the time former Alabama head coach Nick Saban put a comical end to McCarron's baseball dreams.

McCarron signed with the University of Alabama in February 2009 and was a true freshman during Alabama's 2009 undefeated national championship run. Following the season McCarron was going to play baseball for Mitch Gaspard, first-year baseball coach for the Alabama Crimson Tide.

McCarron details in his interview with McCready and Siskey his short stint in baseball at Alabama.

"I had planned to play baseball at Alabama."

Siskey joked with McCarron, "You misspoke, YOU planned to play baseball at Alabama; Saban did not plan for you to play baseball at Alabama."

"Yeah, that didn't go the way I wanted," McCarron retorted.

"The way it ended was the biggest, like, sh*t show," McCarron answered. "It just surprised me because the whole plan - I had been working with the baseball coach - like 'hey, as soon as the season's over, I'll start working with [the baseball team] and everything,' and I was gonna pitch."

McCarron quickly found out, that wasn't happening.

"I went in to tell Saban, the day, I'm like 'Hey, we start baseball this week, I'm gonna miss, you know, some of the spring practice and all that, so I'll just need to work with you.'"

Saban shut it down quickly.

"He closed the door," McCarron said of Saban. "And was like, 'Hey, do you plan on being my quarterback maybe next year or the year after?' And I was like, 'Yeah, that's what the plan is.' And he was like, 'Well, you're not f***ing playing baseball anymore.'"

"I was like, oh, alright," McCarron said. "And that's how my baseball career ended."

McCarron can laugh about it now, but he probably wasn't laughing coming out of that meeting with Coach Saban.

It may have been the correct choice, with McCarron being so successful in college football at Alabama. He was drafted in the fifth round of the 2014 NFL draft, where he spent seven seasons in the NFL. McCarron is now a member of the St. Louis Battlehawks, a UFL football team that plays in the spring.

McCarron spent 2024 with the Battlehawks, passing for 1,581 yards and 15 touchdowns in eight games. McCarron missed two games in the UFL's inaugural season due to an ankle injury.