I strongly recommend against the use of baseball cleats for football.
The reason is simple: each pair of cleats is designed with a specific sport in mind.
A baseball cleat will not offer you all of the protection and ankle support you need to play football. If you’ve ever sprained your ankle or had ligament damage in the foot, you now know how crucial adequate protection can be.
The only situation which could justify using baseball cleats for football is if you are really strapped for cash and play either the wide receiver or cornerback position.
Consideration #1: The Studs
Most football cleats use plastic or rubber stubs, with large knobs that screw into the bottom of the cleat so that they can be interchanged for different lengths.
Baseball cleats, meanwhile, feature metal studs, which are not only permanently attached to the cleat but also offer better grip on infield dirt.
Rubber and plastic studs, the kind found in football cleats, offer better grip on the turf of the football field.
What this means is that you’ve won’t be able to change the cleats on your baseball shoes, and so the grip of the metal studs won’t offer as much traction as plastic or rubber studs would.
Moreover, many football players like to adjust the length of their studs depending on their position.
For example, wide receivers prefer shorter cleats so that they can remain agile while offensive linemen prefer longer cleats that dig into the ground.
With baseball cleats, you won’t be able to do this, so you just have to hope that the length on your baseball cleats suits your football position.
Consideration #2: Ankle Support
Baseball cleats are made with the bursty and explosive movements of base-running and ball-catching in mind, which means they are lightweight and normally don’t feature any ankle support.
Ankle support, as anyone who has rolled an ankle trying to cut on a dime can attest to, is super crucial for football players.
Football cleats are usually more heavy-duty than baseball cleats, which aids in lateral mobility as well as sprinting on turf. You simply won’t get the added control with baseball cleat.s
On top of that, the safety is just not there with baseball cleats, and football being the physical sport it is, this is an area you don’t want to skimp out on.
