As the question says, imagine a NFL linebacker being transported to roman times, how prized would he be as a soldier?
Probably none. He’s had no training in the weapons of the era and the only violence he’s used to, is in the game with protective gear.
ETA: The warriors he would face have grown up swinging swords, carrying shields and such. The football player would very quickly(minutes most likely) trying to tote that stuff.
He would be bigger and stronger than most others, and while pads are designed to be light, i think he could handle the armor of the time just fine.
The problem will be expertise: he has no idea how to use a gladius and is probably more of a danger to himself than others.
He would be Goliath and legends would be told about the normal sized soldier who defeated him.
Would his agent go back with him? How soon could he negotiate a new contract?
Someone might call him spearchucker, and he might not like that.
I suppose he could train up with the weapons & armor, but it would take a lot of time to retrain from “All out ambush & grapple with brief breaks between action” to “Ho! Ha ha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!”
That kind of size and strength doesn’t give the endurance to wear heavy armor for hours.
Would a modern elite athlete be able to keep up their level of physical fitness without the special diets, drugs, and small army of trainers, nutritionists, doctors, etc.?
cf Titus Manlius.
According to Polybius the Romans saw small size as not a bad thing, as it with a short sword allows one to get inside the reach of some wild-swinging barbarian.
Notice that ancient athletes, Olympians and so on, weren’t generally soldiers, and cities dominating the Olympics (like Kroton) had no notable military successes.
The football player would crush. Today’s football players are bigger and stronger than players from just 20 years ago, and they’re exponentially bigger and stronger than the ancients. It wouldn’t even be a fair fight.
In a regular army? We’re not talking 1 on 1 battles.
And even if we were, put a sword in the hand of an experienced swordsman and one in the hands of the NFL player, and it won’t be close. NFL players aren’t trained in armed combat.
Heck, that already happens now. NFL players who do MMA type stuff have a strength and conditioning advantage but they aren’t appreciably better than the better trained fighters. It’s an entirely different skillset.
Just for perspective… have you seen an NFL linebacker up close and in person? Ken Harvey uses the same gym and when you see him in the locker room he is huge, ginormous, a force of nature that you want on your side in a dark alley. And he’s 48 now. I wasn’t there but I don’t think the ancients were on average as big as the NFL players of today. Big guys beat small guys all the time every time. Besides… the OP asked: would NFL linebackers be prized as soldiers with no mention of weapons. And even so, I’m sure an NFL linebacker could learn to use a sword after which he would be even more of a bad mf’er. There’s a reason those guys are paid millions… they are unique specimens.
You’re really underestimating skill. It takes thousands of hours to become an expert in something and ancient soldiers would have spent lots of time training. A little guy who knows how to fight will wipe the floor with a big guy who doesn’t every time. When deadly weapons come into the equation skill matters even more.
The problem is size. A linebacker would tower over the other soldiers and would become the default spear/arrow target by the other side.
:dubious: I’d like to know the last army to field soldiers without any weapons. It’s been rather a given for thousands of years.
This is especially true of the Roman era the OP mentioned. Training was severe and discipline tight. In fact, that was the hallmark of early Roman Imperial armies. They didn’t rely on single huge brutes to fight hordes of enemy soldiers Hollywood-style (also one of the many, obvious inaccuracies found in 300). They relied on keeping in tight formation and following orders. Being significantly larger or smaller than your mates was actually a disadvantage.
Now the following is just a wild guess, but I even presume the earliest deadly scuffles between small pre-historic tribes also involved clubs, spears, and maybe even simple knives and not just a single dude going Rambo with his bare hands.
And that seems to be the problem. We have the notion of a single, unbeatable hero deeply ingrained in us starting with fairy tales from birth. Real badass heroes like Rambo or Prince Charming or Lancelot don’t really exist. Mostly a guy is just a guy, unless he has a brilliant strategic mind and had the luck to be born into a noble enough and rich enough family to field an army or serve as an officer in one.
The ancients were pretty damn fit themselves. I doubt whether all the things you listed amount to more than a 10% edge for the modern athlete.
As for the OPs question - a modern NFL player transported back to Roman times would be as prized as any other large barbarian. Raw athletic ability is good and all but skill really does matter.
Oh piffle. Mariusz Pudzianowski (winner of the “World’s Strongest Man” title multiple times) is an absolute beastly slab of muscle but as an MMA fighter he’s mediocre. Sure he’s strong as hell and he’d tear someone like me to shreds, but put him against someone who spent years learning how to fight, as opposed to just building strength, and he gets beat up. And that’s unarmed combat. There are plenty of examples showing what happens when a more skilled little guy fights a less skilled bigger guy. Spoiler - the big guy does not beat the small guy every time.
A big strong athlete may make a better soldier after he puts in the same amount of actual “soldiery training” as someone who isn’t in as good shape, but he still isn’t immune to having a sharp hunk of metal shoved through his body.
And NFL players are not paid millions because they are unique specimens, they are paid millions because they play a big-money sport. I’m sure a SEAL is just as much, if not more, a unique specimen as any pro athlete and they aren’t getting rich off that job.
I imagine our time-transported linebacker might make for a terrific gladiator school candidate.
How about “would a properly trained NFL player be a prized warrior” instead? I’m not certain, but I assume most Roman soldiers joined up about the time top-prospect football players start college (17-19) and I doubt any of them came to the table with skills in swordsmanship, they had to be taught. So take, say, a 21 or 22 year old NFL rookie, with all the attendant physical prowess, and induct him into a Legion. Admittedly, he’d be behind the curve of some of his Roman compatriots, but with proper training, on top of the physical “freakishness” of most NFL players (and yes, they are all huge by selection, even “small” players like running backs are usually in the 6’ range, and Quarterbacks are considered puny if they don’t hit around 6’2"+), the I think by the time he was 24 he’d be something to contend with.
Also don’t forget that aside from linemen, most position players have lightning reflexes, speed, and agility. Linebackers, maybe not as much, but receivers, defensive backs, etc. would be stunning athletes in the Roman world - as they are in ours. I think most people forget that because they see 22 men of very similar abilities going at each other on the field, so they tend to forget that any one of them is a marvel of modern science, nutrition, and genetic predisposition.
Although I think sending only one back would be pointless, militarily - however he would likely have a shot at becoming the most reknown gladiator of all time.