‘Wrestling Was A True Back Up’ – Roman Reigns Addresses NFL To WWE Transition, Being Forced To Quit Football After Leukaemia Diagnosis

WWE/NFL

Roman Reigns has addressed his transition from the NFL to WWE, and his football retirement being forced upon him following his leukaemia diagnosis.

Given his legendary lineage in the Anoa’i family, Roman Reigns always had ties to professional wrestling, but long before becoming the ‘Tribal Chief’, the ‘Head of the Table’ and a seven time world champion, Reigns pursued a career in the NFL.

After playing defensive tackle for Georgia Tech, Roman Reigns found himself signed to the Minnesota Vikings in 2007, but his career was derailed shortly thereafter when he was diagnosed with leukaemia.

The diagnosis led to Reigns being let go by the Vikings, with the WWE star also later being released by the Jacksonville Jaguars.

After a brief spell playing in the Canadian Football League, Reigns retired from the sport and eventually signed his WWE developmental deal in 2010, following in the footsteps of his father Sika, brother Rosey and many others in his family.

Appearing on a live edition of Nightcap alongside New York Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson ahead of Saturday Night’s Main Event, Reigns was asked about the transition from football to wrestling.

Stating that the performing arts aspect of WWE was more difficult that the athleticism aspect, Reigns said:

“Well the first time I had to put the underwear on that sucked (laughs). No, I mean there’s a lot of things that translate. The physicality, the toughness, the charisma. I was a d (defensive) tackle so I would talk s**t to the o (offensive) line, but not on the level of captivating the whole world. So some people have to really tap into that and figure it out.

“And that was where for me, everything in-ring and the physicality of it all, that was easy for me. It was the public speaking , it was the character development. It was the psychology of performance and storytelling. It was all the little micro nuances of performing arts. The athletics were easy to me.”

If you use this transcription or any portion of it please credit WrestleTalk.com and link to this page.

When asked by Shannon Sharpe about his NFL aspirations before transitioning to WWE, Reigns explained how wrestling was a “true back up” plan for him, with his primary focus being on football until his leukaemia diagnosis forced him to step away from the game:

“I wanted to either play football, or wrestling was a true back up though. It was tough because my whole life was surrounded by it. Even when I was doing good in football, it would end up being like ‘So your dad wrestled.’ And it was like ‘Yeah he did, and so did all my other family members, but let’s talk about football.’ I just wanted to get outside of the shadow of wrestling and it ended up coming back ten fold.

“But I was able to build my career up to what it is now and kind of create my own path and also represent my legacy. But it was always either football or wrestling the whole time.

“But there was a long time where it was like this football thing has to work out. I needed it, I loved it, it was everything to me. And the game, it kind of quit me due to circumstances with my health and everything. So it was a really abrupt and out of nowhere closing of that chapter and I wasn’t ready for it. I didn’t know how to handle it.

“I was still 22 years old, I was being diagnosed leukaemia at the time, my oldest was being born shortly thereafter. So my whole world got flipped upside down, and for me to kind of land on my feet is a blessing from God.”

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• wwe
• Roman Reigns
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