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Switching Sports: Former Penn State QB Christian Hackenberg working towards career in baseball

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Former Penn State and NFL quarterback Christian Hackenberg is pursuing a career in a new sport.

Hackenberg, who has struggled to sticks with a team in the NFL, is now looking at taking a path to a career in professional baseball. He’s working on becoming a pitcher, and was caught firing at 90 mph during a workout session.

The former quarterback says his passion is to compete, regardless of sport.

“I just want to compete,” Hackenberg told NBC Philadelphia. “I’ve kinda had my trials and tribulations with the NFL and had success and had that rollercoaster ride. At the end of the day I’m sitting here at 25 and for me, like I said, I think I have a lot left in the tank.”

Hackenberg played at Penn State from 2013-15. In three seasons with the Nittany Lions, he threw for 8,457 yards and 48 touchdowns while completing 56.1 percent of his passes.

Following his three years at Penn State, Hackenberg was selected in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft by the New York Jets. There wasn’t much success in the NFL, though, as Hackenberg didn’t appear in any regular season games while in New York.

Hackenberg would later sign deals with the Oakland Raiders, Philadelphia Eagles and Cincinnati Bengals as a member of the offseason squad.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB