Youngest Pro Athletes of All Time

It’s not hard to spot a sports phenom in today’s culture. Thanks to the internet and social media, we can see a rising star from a mile away. But the ability to spot talent hasn’t always been so easy.

Scouts and fans used to have to rely on word of mouth and what they read in local newspapers or saw on TV. Now prodigies can become household names in grade school and start cashing checks before they get a driver’s license. 

The times may have changed, but there has always been great young talent. These are the youngest professional athletes in United States history.

Born: Oct. 29, 1994 (St. Catherine, Jamaica)

Sport: Football

Career: 2015-present

Pro highlights: Two-time NFL All-Pro (2018, 2019), two-time NFL Pro Bowl (2018, 2019), PFWA All-Rookie Team (2015)

Bottom line: Danielle Hunter signed with LSU and played his freshman season on mostly special teams when he was just 17 years old. He filled out at 6-foot-5 and 262 pounds and was a star defensive end for the Tigers in his final two years before leaving school early for the NFL draft. 

Hunter didn’t even come to the United States until he was 8 years old. His family moved from Jamaica to the Houston suburbs, where a local football coach noticed his size and speed at a young age and encouraged him to go out for football. 

Born: Dec. 11, 1925 (Chicago, Illinois)

Died: April 11, 2002 (age 76, West Palm Beach, Florida)

Sport: Football

Career: 1946-52

Pro highlights: Two-time NFL Pro Bowl (1950, 1951), NFL Champion (1974)

Bottom line: Elmer Angsman won a national championship at Notre Dame in 1943 and became the youngest player in history drafted in the NFL in 1946 at just a shade over 20 years old. 

Angsman had his best game in the 1947 NFL championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles when the running back went for 159 rushing yards and two touchdowns on just 10 carries. His 15.9 yards per rush average is still an NFL postseason single-game record. 

Angsman had a long career as a radio and TV announcer after his career was over and died in 2002, at 76 years old, when he suffered a heart attack during a round of golf. 

Born: May 2, 1998 (Danville, Virginia)

Sport: Football

Career: 2018-present

Pro highlights: Two-time NFL Pro Bowl (2019, 2020)

Bottom line: Tremaine Edmunds has been ahead of schedule since he was dominating high school opponents in Virginia, then starring at Virginia Tech, where he left school with one year of eligibility remaining. 

Edmunds, a do-it-all linebacker, was the No. 16 overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft by the Buffalo Bills, when he was just 19 years old, and has been a huge part of the team’s resurgence in the last few years. In three seasons, he’s already made two Pro Bowls. 

Born: June 10, 1987 (Anambra, Nigeria)

Sport: Football

Career: (2007-14, 2016)

Pro highlights: First-round pick (No. 10 overall) in 2007 NFL draft, 16 career sacks in NFL

Bottom line: Amobi Okoye’s path to becoming the youngest player in NFL history began when his family immigrated to the United States from Nigeria when he was 12 years old. 

Okoye didn’t begin playing football until he was a sophomore at Lee High in Hunstville, Alabama, but was an all-state defensive lineman by the time he was a senior. Okoye picked Louisville over Harvard and was so far ahead academically that he began playing college football at just 16 years old — the youngest player in NCAA history. 

Okoye also became the youngest player drafted in NFL history when the Houston Texans picked him No. 10 overall in 2007 and is one of only two teenagers picked in NFL history alongside Tremaine Edmunds in 2018.