I was curious, so I googled football players turned Wrestlers and found this article. I didn't know La'roi Glover wrestled.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/8527119
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Football and wrestling always have had close links. Many football stars had long careers as wrestlers, including Hall of Famers
Bronko Nagurski and
Leo Nomellini, and stars like Ernie Ladd. Some fooled around with it, like
Lawrence Taylor or William Perry. Many other wrestlers have football backgrounds that fell short of NFL success, like Florida State All-American Ron Simmons or Larry "Lex Luger" Pfohl. Still others, like Jim Nance or
La'Roi Glover, were successful college wrestlers as well as football players.
In 1992, the Sacramento Surge won the World Bowl with a defensive tackle named Bill Goldberg. After a brief turn with the Falcons, he re-emerged in WCW as Goldberg and became one of the hottest properties in wrestling. Jim Criner, line coach with the Surge, once laughed about Goldberg's success: "If you'd told me he'd out-earn the whole team, I would have said you were crazy!"
Never earning quite so much was Amsterdam Admirals tight end Josh Wilcox, son of NFL Hall of Famer Dave. Josh already had professional experience in the Pacific Northwest when he joined NFL Europe; among his trainers was Matt Borne, best known as Doink the Clown.
Speaking of tight ends, Niklos' own Frankfurt Galaxy have sent at least three players to wrestling, including tight end Chad Fortune, a star in 1991 and '92. Chad never found wrestling stardom, but once formed a tag-team with former Louisville quarterback Erik Watts, son of Cowboy Bill Watts, himself a college football player. Fortune favors Fortune, however, and he turned to USHRA racing, where he drives Karl Malone's monster truck, Power Forward, often wearing a Superman suit.
Another Galaxy player, 6-foot-10 tackle Russ McCullough, turned to wrestling with about as much success as fortune. He convinced another Galaxy player, German-born defensive tackle Stefan Gamlin, who played at Arkansas State, to take up the business. Now listed at 6-7 and 335 pounds, Gamlin moved on to Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) competitions, including a huge Japanese matchup against
Bob Sapp.
Sapp would have been NFL Europe's greatest wrestling success story, except he couldn't make the roster of the Scottish Claymores. Now he's a marketing phenomenon in Japan, a multimedia super star, the equivalent of something between Hulk Hogan and Michael Jordan. His match with American-born sumo champion Akebono (Chad Rowan) drew television ratings in Japan that made the Super Bowl look like Mayberry RFD reruns.
The Bears drafted Sapp as an offensive lineman out of Washington. With great size, he was a "mauler" but never really could establish himself as an NFL lineman. He attempted to make the conversion to the D-line in Europe, but at the time the Claymores were loaded with talent there, including two national players who figured in the rotation. Sapp, at about 6-4 and 330, had tremendous strength and great straight-ahead speed, but according to Jim Tomsula, then the Claymores' line coach, he lacked the lateral movement and awareness.
"I would have loved to work with him," Tomsula said, "but we couldn't give him the chance."
Sapp did some training as a wrestler in the U.S., but it was in Japan, where he plays a rather traditional "savage beast" role, where he became a phenomenon, both in wrestling and in various MMA promotions, although it has to be said that his 52-second victory against Gamlin in a 2003 K-1 tournament had more than a touch of the wrestling "squash" match about it.
Another almost was former WWE champ
Brock Lesnar. A college champion, Lesnar attempted last season to make the Minnesota Vikings as a defensive tackle. You might remember college wrestler Carlton Haselrig became an All Pro with the Steelers, despite never playing college football. Lesnar showed some promise, but was raw, and turned down the chance to hone his skills in Europe, partly to further recover from wrestling injuries, and partly because the money and time away from his family didn't work.
Word now is that Lesnar wants to try again, as an offensive lineman, a la
Steve Neal, another guy with no college football experience who's an NFL starter. This time around, he might be amenable to a season in Europe, where he might be a great marketing bonus to the league. And he can always ask Glover, a top college wrestler at San Diego State, if his year in Europe helped him toward the Pro Bowl.
Are you paying attention, J.R.?
