Dwayne Johnson gets honest about failing to make it to the NFL
Before Dwayne Johnson was WWE royalty as "The Rock," he was a college football player. Johnson played for the University of Miami during its National Championship run in 1991. The former defensive tackle spent most of his collegiate career as a backup to now Hall of Famer Warren Sapp.
On Friday, Dwayne Johnson was a guest on "The Pat McAfee Show." The new ESPN afternoon show was live from the University of Colorado. Johnson told McAfee how much of an honor it was to be invited on the show. He then praised his ability to transition from an NFL player to creating a brand for himself.
"First of all, making it to the NFL is a hard thing to do. Like this guy (AJ Hawk) will tell you and like I tried to, it didn't happen. So the fact that you were able to do that, that's hard."
'The Rock' added:
"The fact then that you transitioned into something that you love and you deliver this show for the people every single day, not only is it hard, but it's gratifying to man and you put your passion in this thing. So when I text you, I'm not going to assume, I'm just going to show up and put me on the show."
Dwayne Johnson then said that pursuing a career in the NFL is not easy. He spoke about his personal experience about trying to pursue an NFL career but, that it didn’t happen.
It was one of the rare times the former WWE champion spoke about his NFL aspirations. Clearly, he was able to make a name for himself as well as Pat McAfee did.
Johnson did get some playing time, appearing 39 career games, including one start. He recorded 77 tackles and 4.25 sacks.
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Did Dwayne Johnson play football at the professional level?
Dwayne Johnson didn't get drafted in the NFL after his collegiate career for the Miami Hurricanes. However, that didn't prevent him from pursuing professional football.
Despite not having his name called in the NFL Draft, he later signed with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League in 1995. The Stampeders moved him to linebacker from the defensive tackle position he had played.
He was placed on Calgary's practice squad; however, he never saw any playing time and was released two months later.
His attempt at a football career was the driving force of his investment in the XFL. As a co-owner of the league, he hopes to give football players an opportunity to pursue a football career.