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In sports that require a player to play on offense and defense (such as basketball and ice hockey), a two-way player refers to a player who excels at both. In sports where a player typically specializes on offense or defense (like American football), or on pitching or batting (like baseball), it refers to a player who chooses to do both.
Some of the best two-way players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) have been awarded the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, Kevin Garnett, and Giannis Antetokounmpo are the only Defensive Player of the Year winners to have also won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) during their careers. Jordan, Olajuwon, and Antetokounmpo won both awards in the same season.
In the Women's National Basketball Association, Yolanda Griffith, Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Lauren Jackson, Candace Parker, Tamika Catchings, Sylvia Fowles, and A'ja Wilson have won both the WNBA Most Valuable Player Award and the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. Griffith, Swoopes, Leslie, Jackson, and Wilson won both awards in the same year, with Swoopes doing so twice.
Only two players have won both the Hart Trophy (the NHL's MVP award) and the Norris Trophy (the defensive player of the year award): Bobby Orr three times and Chris Pronger once, each time in the same season.
Until Shohei Ohtani in 2021, Babe Ruth (in 1918 and 1919) was the last player to pitch 100 and have 200 as a batter in the same season. (Bullet Rogan achieved the same feat yearly from 1921 to 1927 seasons in the Negro leagues, which were not considered major leagues at the time.) Two-way players are still common in college baseball, with the John Olerud Award being given to the best two-way player of the season. However, by the major league level, a player is usually better at either pitching or batting, and rarely is given the chance to do both.
Effective with the 2020 season, "two-way player" became an official MLB roster classification. A player qualifies once he reaches the following statistical milestones in either the current or either of the two previous seasons:
Once the player qualifies, he retains two-way status for the remainder of the current season plus all of the next two seasons. Two-way players do not count against the limit of 13 pitchers (14 for regular-season games after September 1) on a team's active roster instituted in 2020, and also are not subject to restrictions on pitching by position players that were also introduced in 2020.
Shohei Ohtani, a two-way player as a pitcher and outfielder, moved from Nippon Professional Baseball to MLB in 2018 and became one of the few players to hit and pitch professionally. He has been used as a DH on days when he does not pitch. Ohtani was named the 2018 American League Rookie of the Year after becoming the first player since Babe Ruth to hit at least 20 home runs and pitch at least 50 innings in the same season. In 2021, Ohtani became the first player to be selected for the MLB All-Star game as both a pitcher and designated hitter, and he finished the year with 46 home runs and a 158 OPS+ as a hitter and a 3.18 ERA on the mound, winning the AL MVP award unanimously. In 2022, Ohtani became the first modern-era player to qualify for hitting and pitching leaderboards in the same season, and in 2023 was again the unanimous AL MVP, also making the All-MLB Team first team as both a designated hitter and starting pitcher.
Pitcher Michael Lorenzen, a former two-way player at Cal State Fullerton, amassed 133 at-bats, 31 hits and seven home runs in his seven seasons with the Cincinnati Reds, and he played as an outfielder in 36 games. He would stop batting in the Major Leagues after leaving the Reds, pitching for the Los Angeles Angels, Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies, being named an All-Star and pitching a no-hitter in 2023.
Other major-league teams have evaluated prospects as two-way players, including Anthony Gose, Brett Eibner and Trey Ball.
Deion Sanders was a starter on defense who occasionally played offense, except for the 1996 season in which he played a considerable amount of offense as a wide receiver.
William "Refrigerator" Perry was a defensive lineman for the Chicago Bears from 1985 to 1993. Perry occasionally played fullback in goal line situations and set the then-record for the heaviest player to score a touchdown at 335 lb (152 kg).
Former St. Louis Rams player Mike Furrey was signed as a wide receiver in 2003 and was converted to safety in 2005, where he would record 58 solo tackles and 4 interceptions. The next season, this time as a member of the Detroit Lions, Furrey converted back to wide receiver where he recorded 98 receptions (second in the NFL), 1,086 receiving yards, and 6 touchdowns. Furrey would remain as a wide receiver until 2009, when as part of the Cleveland Browns, he was once again converted to safety and also played nickelback due to an injury-riddled secondary.
Troy Brown, well-regarded for his special-teams skills and as a wide receiver, played significant time at cornerback when starters were injured during the 2004 season. His three interceptions ranked second among Patriots players that season. He also played cornerback in an emergency role during the 2005 and 2006 seasons.
Linebacker Mike Vrabel (who was Brown's New England Patriots team-mate for several years) frequently lined up at tight end or fullback in short-yardage situations at the goal line. In his career, he caught ten touchdown passes as a receiver during the regular season, and two more during the playoffs. Those two post-season touchdowns came in successive Super Bowls: XXXVIII and XXXIX.
Longtime Baltimore Ravens fullback Patrick Ricard was a defensive lineman in college. The Ravens converted him to fullback in 2017 after signing him as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Maine. During his first three seasons, he also played as a defensive tackle. This included his third season in 2019, when he was selected as a starting fullback for the Pro Bowl. Ricard has not played defense since 2019, but , he continues to play fullback for the Ravens.
Scott Matlock of the Los Angeles Chargers was signed as a defensive lineman in 2023 and started playing fullback in 2024. Matlock's offensive coordinator Greg Roman also coached the previously mentioned Patrick Ricard, who made a similar transition to fullback from defensive lineman.
Chris Gamble not only played offense and defense at Ohio State, but he also played all phases of special teams.
Owen Marecic was a first-team All-American at Stanford in 2010 after logging 51 tackles at linebacker and 46 yards and 5 touchdowns in mostly goal-line situations at fullback. He scored touchdowns on both offense and defense 13 seconds apart against Notre Dame.
While he was at UCLA (2013–2015), linebacker Myles Jack also played running back, and he won both the Pac-12 Conference Offensive and Defensive Freshman Player of the Year awards.
Travis Hunter played both wide receiver and cornerback for Jackson State in 2022 and for Colorado in 2023 and 2024. His head coach at both schools was a former two-way player, Deion Sanders. On November 29, 2024, Hunter was the first FBS player since 1996 to score 3 touchdowns on offense and record an interception. At the end of his junior season, he won the 2024 Heisman Trophy. In addition, he uniquely won both the Chuck Bednarik Award, as the nation's top defensive player, and the Fred Biletnikoff Award, as the nation's best wide receiver. He was drafted second overall in the 2025 NFL draft.
In recent times, full-backs have become two-way players, with the traditionally defensive position taking on a more attacking role than was the case traditionally, with full-backs often overlapping with wingers down the flank; wingerless formations, such as the diamond 4–4–2 formation, require the full-back to cover considerable ground up and down the flank. David Pleat explains in a Guardian article how full-backs aid football teams when attacking.
Two-way players who are skilled at playing both goalkeeper and are very rare at the higher levels of play. One of few who have started different matches as outfielder and goalkeeper was defender David Webb, who started one match in 1971 for Chelsea F.C. as goalkeeper.
In the event that a team loses all its regular goalkeepers to injuries or red cards, outfielders have occasionally switched mid-match to the goalkeeper role for the rest of the match, but the player's switch is not typically normalised in later matches.
Regular goalkeepers are not prohibited from participating in outfield activity while being goalkeeper, though this is normally considered risky. Examples include dribbling in defence, taking or , or if a team is 1 goal behind near the end of a match while a corner kick or free kick is awarded, the keeper can run up to the offence to attempt a last-minute goal.
Notable two-way baseball players
Ankiel was the first player since Babe Ruth to have won 10 or more games in a season, and to hit 50 career home runs. Pitched a no-hitter in 1902 MLB Hall of Fame MLB Hall of Fame Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame 2-time Dick Howser Trophy winner Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame Brother of fellow two-way player Jiro Noguchi Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame Won the MVP award in 2021, 2023 (AL) and 2024 (NL) Known as "Double Duty Radcliffe" MLB Hall of Fame MLB Hall of Fame Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame MLB Hall of Fame Won the 1939 National League Most Valuable Player Award
American football
NFL
In the National Football League (NFL), there are few two-way players. A major concern is the possibility of injury when a player is overused. In the early years of the NFL, two-way players were more common as part of the one-platoon system, but in modern times, they are a rarity.
College football
At the college level, some players play on both sides of the ball. In the mid-1980s, Gordie Lockbaum was a notable two-way player—he twice finished in the top five in Heisman Trophy balloting, and later was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame.
Association football
Box-to-box midfielders are a prominent example of two-way players in association football. Box-to-box midfielders are hard-working and have good all-round abilities, which makes them skilled at both defending and attacking; these players can therefore track back to their own box to block shots or to make tackles and interceptions, and also carry the ball forward or run to the opponents' box to try to score. Some notable examples of box-to-box midfielders are Lothar Matthäus, Clarence Seedorf, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Steven Gerrard, Johan Neeskens, Sócrates, Patrick Vieira, Bryan Robson and Roy Keane. The Best Box-to-Box Midfielders of All-Time
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