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Roman Reigns played football all through college and later onFootball and professional wrestling have pretty close ties. Wrestling promotions have a habit of scouting and recruiting football players every now and then, and this has given us a handful of crossover superstars throughout the years. Some went on to become legendary names, some failed to make the transition work while some others are still working hard to make things work.WWE is still looking for such talents and it explains a lot about how close football players are to becoming professional wrestlers. With that said, here are some of the superstars who managed to successfully transition from the world of football to the world of professional wrestling.
#6 Honourable mentions: Dusty Rhodes and Baron Corbin
Dusty Rhodes, before becoming the legendary wrestler that he is, had a love for football. He played in the Continental Football League for West Texas State and was talked into wrestling by Gary Hart.
Baron Corbin, on the other hand is treated as a big deal in NXT right now. He is having squash match after squash match there and had a solid football career preceeding that.
#5 JBL
JBL is a man of multiple talents. He was a solid wrestler in the ring, was a great talker, does well in announcing, and before all that, he was a football player and coach. He was the coach of Trinity Valley Community College Football team and was also a player for Abilene Christian University. He was the First-team all-Lone Star conference at Abilene and later joined Los Angeles Raiders.
JBL also played for the San Antonio Riders in the World League of American Football before starting his wrestling career in Global Wrestling Federation. After a five year stay there, JBL moved to WWE where he found success.
#4 Roman Reigns
Born into the Anoa’I family which was known for producing legendary wrestlers, Roman Reigns had a great career option in the form of professional wrestling. He eventually took the road but before that, Reigns was an active football player. He was named the defensive player of the year during his high school and afterwards he joined the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team. He captained the side there and went on to become first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference.
He had spells in Minnesota Vikings and Jacksonville Jaguars before signing a development deal with WWE back in 2010. We all know the remaining part of the story and Reigns is currently on his way to reach the top.
#3 Ron Simmons
Ron Simmons was the first African American WCW Champion in the history. He was part of the Nation of Domination and APA during his career as well and before such glory came his way from the wrestling business, Simmons was a footballer. Simmons had a spectacular career in Florida State and was tagged as one of the state’s greatest recruiting successes.
He later had a short run in the National Football League as well. In NFL, Simmons was drafted in the sixth round drafts of 1981. He initially played for Cleveland Browns initially and later played for Tampa Bay Bandits of USFL as well. Simmons later changed his attention to wrestling thanks to his teammate in Tampa, who happens to be the next superstar in the list.
#2 Lex Luger
Before meeting Ron Simmons at Tampa, Lex Luger had a glorified career in Gridiron Football. He attended school on a football scholarship and wanted to try his hand in soccer since he was a big fan of Manchester United. However, he stuck with football and in 1979, he played for Miami. The team he played in, had many future NFL stars and Hall of Famers and Luger’s stay was cut short after an off field incident.
Luger then played professionally for Montreal Alouettes, Green Bay Packers, Tampa Bay Bandits, Memphis Showboats and Jacksonville Bulls before entering professional wrestling.
#1 Goldberg
Goldberg and his undefeated streak is folklore in the wrestling business. Although he was not a great wrestler when it came down to wrestling skills, Goldberg achieved great popularity and was measured with names like Steve Austin and Dwayne the Rock Johnson during that time. Before joining the WCW Power plant, Goldberg served as a defensive tackle for the University of Georgia Bulldogs football team.
He was then snatched up by Los Angeles Rams in the 1990 NFL Drafts and Goldberg continued playing in NFL for the next five years. His career however, was cut short after he tore his lower abdomen and this allowed him to think about alternatives. And although he was not a fan of wrestling, he decided to jump in and the rest is history.
