NFL to MLB: Tebow following Dozier’s blueprint

What Tim Tebow wants — to go from the NFL to the Major Leagues without having played baseball since high school — is almost unprecedented in modern-day sports. But not completely.

D.J. Dozier, who played running back for the Vikings and Lions from 1987-91, then left field for the Mets in ’92, took that path: from multisport high school athlete, to football-only in college and the NFL, to picking up baseball and reaching the Majors.

While not a perfect comparison, as Tebow’s baseball layoff was a bit longer, Dozier’s path from pigskin to cowhide offers Tebow the most reason for hope.

“The thing I would tell Tebow would be don’t get frustrated,” Dozier said in advance of the former Broncos quarterback’s showcase for MLB teams on Tuesday. “Give yourself some time, assuming you have it. … If you’re an athlete, you love the game of baseball and you have the tools, it’s a matter of time.”

In 1983, Dozier was drafted by the Tigers in the 18th round out of Kempsville High School in Virginia Beach, Va. It was a courtesy; MLB teams knew he was committed to Penn State, where he played four years of football and was, like Tebow, an All-American and a national champion.

Dozier was supposed to play baseball, too, but football got in the way: first a deal with then-Penn State head coach Joe Paterno to spend his full freshman year on the gridiron; then arthroscopic knee surgery; then his NFL draft stock.

The Vikings drafted Dozier in the first round in 1987, and he went to the NFL. His rookie year in Minnesota, the Twins beat the Cardinals in a seven-game World Series.

“Something hit me,” said Dozier, who rushed for 691 yards and seven touchdowns across five NFL seasons. “I just had this …

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