Jake Paul’s new plan: walk on for Stanford football. 'Dude would get (expletive) rocked'
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Celebrity boxer Jake Paul said he has “aspirations” to play in the NFL. But to get there, he wants to offer the league tape of him playing college football first.
Paul, in a recent interview with the a16z Podcast Network, said he wants to do that by walking on as a slot receiver at Stanford.
“I do have NFL aspirations after boxing,” Paul said in the interview. “I want to play slot receiver, and so I think to get that experience, in college first would be good so I could walk onto the Stanford team.”
After a brief pause in the interview, Paul ensured he was not joking. “I’m being serious,” he said, laughing.
“The idea of it happened today. I was originally thinking I’ll just go straight to the Cleveland Browns or Dallas Cowboys, but they’re probably going to want to see me play first. So, it might be better if I start off in college and have a little bit of an advantage over the younger, not as big kids before going into the NFL.”
Jake Paul says he wants to play slot receiver in the NFL after boxing, starting at Stanford
“I do have NFL aspirations after boxing. I want to play slot receiver, and so I think to get that experience, college first would be good so I could walk onto the Stanford team”
“I’m… pic.twitter.com/OUP1aALP7G
— dank (@cptdankkk) June 22, 2026
Paul’s plan of turning Stanford into a stepping stone to the NFL isn’t as easy as it sounds. For one, he weighed in at 216 pounds for his most recent celebrity boxing bout, whereas slot receivers in the NFL weigh closer to the 190-to-205-pound range (and 175-to-190-pound range in college).
Moreover, Paul must be enrolled at Stanford to walk onto its football team, and the university has strict academic requirements for potential applicants, saying “the primary criterion for admission to Stanford is academic excellence, which means flawless or nearly flawless grades in rigorous courses.”
Paul dropped out of Westlake High School as a junior to move to Los Angeles with older brother Logan Paul to pursue a career in entertainment. He did complete his high school degree online, per BuzzFeed News.
There’s also the extreme difficulty of being an NFL-caliber athlete. Former NFL stars Antonio Brown, Shawne Merriman and Taylor Lewan, for example, expressed significant doubt on the younger Paul brother’s ability to make it to the league.
“Dude would get (expletive) rocked,” Brown posted.
“Jake Paul A+ promoter, rage baiter, and a solid athlete,” Lewan posted on X. “0.000001% chance he could make it to the NFL but I would love to watch this unfold.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jake Paul says he’ll walk on at Stanford en route to the NFL. Seriously
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