You wouldn’t expect an active NFL player to play a physically challenging sport like tennis during his career as a tennis-caused injury could be a risk to the player’s body and even his career.
And compared to football tennis is considered to be a little less macho, to put it mildly. But New York Giants running back Bobby Rainey loves to play tennis. During a Biofile interview last week in East Rutherford NJ after a Giants practice, Rainey revealed that tennis is one of his favorite sporting activities outside of football. “I have multiple sports that I like to play – tennis, golf, basketball, ping pong,” said Rainey, who added that a certain Swiss hero is his favorite player. “Roger Federer – that’s my guy. That’s who I try to make my game after on the tennis court.” When asked how he hits his backhand Rainey boasts of having an especially effective backhand. “I have a one handed backhand. Oh yeah, crazy backhand. I like to hit slice.”
Rainey’s mom is also a tennis fanatic who also adores Federer and even “wakes up in the middle of the night to watch his matches (in Australia).”
The 29-year-old Rainey stands just 5-foot and eight inches tall (212 pounds) but despite his physical limitations, the undrafted free agent has been an effective NFL running back for four seasons with the Browns, Buccaneers and currently is in his first year with the Giants. Rainey led the Buccaneers in rushing yardage in 2013. That year Rainey had a breakout three touchdown game totaling 153 rushing yards vs Atlanta. Rainey was also a member of the Baltimore Ravens who played in the 2012 Super Bowl.
But Rainey is not much less serious about tennis as he is about his career of football. Rainey played college football at Western Kentucky and still has a tennis coach there. He also has a tennis coach in Atlanta. When asked if tennis helps to enhance his skills as a football player he says: “Yes because tennis requires a lot of speed and quickness and cutting back and forth.”
Rainey says he is not aware of any other current NFL players who play tennis – a cross training experience about as typical as a hockey player engaging in figure skating or a bodybuilder doing distance running. Tennis is indeed a very rare endeavor for football players to participate in. In fact the only examples I have heard of are that Marcus Allen and Ron Johnson (both running backs) played recreation tennis.
Tennis and football rarely cross
13 comments
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Thomas Tung · November 16, 2016 at 7:20 pm
The only other American athlete that comes directly to mind when tennis is involved (for me, anyway) is Kobe Bryant. Not because he plays (I have no idea whether he does or not), but because a decade or so ago, he mentioned that his favorite tennis player was Martina Hingis, for her on-court strategy and tactics.
Scoop Malinowski · November 17, 2016 at 7:50 am
I didn’t know Bryant was a Hingis fan Thomas – expected Kobe might like one of those Williams sisters 🙂 – Not aware of any active pro athletes who work on their tennis games in season except for Filpulla with the Tampa Bay Lighting who I heard was playing during an all star break at Longboat Key during a getaway – I read that marcus allen and kareem abdul jabbar played tennis together but in off seasons –
Andrew Miller · November 17, 2016 at 11:18 am
This is great! And Serena is awesome, no disputing this. She’s mastered everyone. I’m cheering her on in 2017, but I think her competition has arrived in full force – she’ll have to dig very, very, very, very deep to bag her record-shattering slams.
Pliskova has really pulled up the rear, and Kerber – what can we say? She single-handedly ripped the top ranking from Serena Williams and earned her place as one of the greatest surprises in women’s tennis in years.
Not much fe unfortunately on my end for Muguruza and Puente – the two latin stars, whether from Spain by way of Venezuela or Puerto Rico put up huge wins this year and won hearts. But they haven’t dug deep since then and seem to be suffering from one-title-itus.
If Simona gets straight on a few things I’d like to see her push Pliskova around and get over her fear of the later stages of slams. Kvitova is also wide awake so she may be going for slam#3, show she’s a better lefty than we think.
Unless Lucie Safarova pulls off a Pennetta-type glory win! Which isn’t likely to happen. But…KERBER shows that anything can happen.
So Safarova, all you my friend!
catherine bell · November 17, 2016 at 1:00 pm
What happens to Kerber at Oz Open may well shape her season – lose early on and her number one ranking will be gone. She didn’t pace herself well in Asia – that loss in the Singapore final hurt her, I’m guessing, hence the tears.
Simona – same in Oz I think – how she plays will tell a lot. She wants to concentrate on Slams (going to Oz early to prepare) so a good start will help her confidence. She might recall that Kerber at 25 was nowhere near the player we saw this year. So there’s hope.
Petra ? Naaaaah.
Serena ? Your guess is as good as mine. Will she play Auckland ? My bet is on a WD. Then on to Melbourne with no one knowing her form.
As for the rest of the women – write their names on bits of paper, throw in the air and rank in the order they fall to the floor. 🙂
Hartt · November 17, 2016 at 5:26 pm
Well, we can’t complain that the WTA is predictable. Even though there are players, like Halep, Muguruza, Kvitova, Kerber and Safarova, that I would like to see do well, have absolutely no idea how things will pan out at the Aussie Open. I think I’d have a better shot at making predictions for the men. 🙂
catherine bell · November 18, 2016 at 4:01 am
It’s funny but I always find more to say about some of the women players than the men – although I’m not always enthralled by the way they play.
Maybe it’s psychological affinity: ‘ I feel your pain’ and something to do with the more complicated things around being female – very sexist no doubt 🙂 🙂
Scoop Malinowski · November 18, 2016 at 8:52 am
Catherine: The women’s tour is just as intriguing as the men’s –
catherine bell · November 18, 2016 at 9:55 am
Scoop –
Totally agree – it’s just a bit different.
But sometimes I seem to write much more about the women, although I always enjoyed covering the US Open where I could do both as opposed to W’don where I only reported the women partly for time reasons. (there was a long queue to do the men as well.)
Men’s approach to sport is simpler – they just go and do it. With girls and women there’s a lot of extraneous stuff around.
Scoop Malinowski · November 18, 2016 at 4:16 pm
Catherine: Can you be more elaborate abou the “extraneous stuff”? Not sure what you mean…
catherine bell · November 19, 2016 at 3:23 am
Scoop –
Well it would take a lot of time and a lot of typing to explain what I mean – but mainly, women, just by being women, carry with them a lot of baggage to do with cultural expectations, traditional roles etc etc and most particularly in sports where they have to perform well and also therefore push some of those boundaries.
Physical attractiveness comes into it of course, although these days it’s not supposed to – but of course it does even though often unexpressed. Don’t have to give you examples I’m sure.
That’s not so with men, at least not in the same way.
You just have to look at the WTA and what a muddle they get into trying to push women players as athletes and also as fashion models with sexy allure (see Singapore lineup – the only person who dressed appropriately and shall we say modestly was Simona and she got a bit of stick for that).
Trying to be both at once puts a lot of pressure on girls/women.
Summing up: When a man goes out to play tennis he is just a ‘man’ – a woman is always a lot more to us than just a ‘woman’.
And BTW the WTA must be thrilled to bits to have cool blonde Angie, who knows her stuff, as No 1 player. No problems there.
catherine bell · November 19, 2016 at 5:29 am
PS – Of course it’s all about the money as far as women’s tennis goes – how do you sell women ? That can be a tough one.
And I wish Angie would turn off that plastic smile as she poses all over the place these days – it’s getting on my nerves 🙂
Scoop Malinowski · November 19, 2016 at 9:18 am
Catherine: You are veering off the feminist handbook narratives! Not going to debate you on this though – let’s just enjoy the tennis and the drama of the WTA Tour especially with a fired up Sharapova raring to blast her engines for 2017 🙂
catherine bell · November 19, 2016 at 9:38 am
Scoop –
The narrative is all my own 🙂
So no debate !
But you did ask the question and I attempted to answer it – I’m not much of a conventional feminist BTW
My predictions haven’t been too good recently but I do predict Kerber won’t hang on to her No 1 for long – seems to me she was a bit obsessed with getting there.
And Sharpie will flop.