Ford could have played in the NFL

Ford attended the University of Michigan on a scholarship as a committed high school student-athlete from 1931 to 1935. The university's football team, the Wolverines, won national championships in 1932 and 1933, and Ford was named the club's most valuable player in 1934. (his senior year). After graduating, Ford turned down job offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers in favor of accepting positions as head boxing coach and assistant football coach at Yale University, where he hoped to pursue a law career. In New Haven, he instructed future senators William Proxmire and Robert Taft Jr.

Due to his coaching commitments, Ford first encountered hostility from the Yale Law School administration; nevertheless, by 1938, he had gained their approval. Ford later earned a degree in the top third of his class. Ford's political rivals periodically brought up his athletic past while he was serving in Congress. Former President Lyndon B. Johnson made the particularly noteworthy claim that Ford had "played too much football without a helmet."