Okay, so the other day I got this thought stuck in my head: did The Rock actually play in the NFL? I mean, everyone knows he played football, right? Big guy, super athletic, seems like a natural fit.
My First Thoughts
My first instinct was, yeah, probably. You hear about his football past all the time. He played for a big college program, the Miami Hurricanes. I remember hearing they were really good back then, like national championship good. So, it just kinda made sense in my head that he’d have at least a short stint in the pros, the NFL specifically.
Digging into It
So, I decided to actually check it out. Didn’t want to just assume. I hopped online and started poking around. My search process was pretty straightforward:
- I typed things like “Dwayne Johnson NFL career”.
- Then maybe “The Rock play professional football”.
- I also tried “what team did The Rock play for after college”.
Just trying different ways to ask the same basic question, you know how it is. Sometimes you gotta rephrase things to get the right info.
What I Found Out
Turns out, the story’s a bit different than I first thought. Yeah, he was a beast at the University of Miami. Played defensive tackle. He was even on that 1991 national championship team, which is pretty cool.
But here’s the twist: He didn’t get drafted by any NFL team. Went totally undrafted after college. That surprised me a little, given his college pedigree.
So, what happened next? He didn’t go straight to wrestling. He actually went north, to Canada. He signed with the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League (CFL). That’s professional football, just not the NFL.
And his time there was super short. Like, really short. He was on the practice roster for a couple of months, I think, and then got cut. That was pretty much the end of his football dream right there.
Wrapping Up My Thoughts
So, the answer to my original question, “Did The Rock play in the NFL?”, is a solid no. He played high-level college ball and had a brief shot in the CFL, but never actually played a down in the National Football League.
It’s kinda wild when you think about it. Getting cut from the CFL must’ve been rough, but look where he ended up. Crazy how life works out. One door closes, another one opens up into a massive movie star career. Just goes to show, huh?
