Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson reflects on Miami football career – 247Sports
Before he was a WWE superstar or a leading man in blockbuster movies, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson played football for the Miami Hurricanes. Johnson recently reflected on that time during an appearance with Peyton and Eli Manning.
Speaking about his time at Miami, Johnson said he learned some lessons that will last him a lifetime. He also appreciates the number of truly great football players that surrounded him on those Hurricanes teams.
“I was a decent player down there at The U, and I played with some amazing players who went on to be some of the best college football players of all time,” Johnson said. “They went on to become the best in the NFL and legends in Canton. The time that I spent down there at the University of Miami and the lessons I learned there, now we were brash and cocky and we were crazy, but we were winning, man. The lessons I learned down there were tremendous and took them with me forever.”
Johnson acknowledged that he had some talent on the football field, especially for someone who hadn’t been playing the game very much before college. Still, Johnson says Warren Sapp is one of the major reasons he never quite made it to NFL stardom.
“You guys would appreciate this,” Johnson said. “I went down to the University of Miami. I was ready to rock and roll. I was ready to move the crowd. I was going to be the only freshman to play. That’s how much I was balling. I had a lot of raw talent. I had only played two years of organized football before that in the great state of Pennsylvania, the football rich state of Pennsylvania. When I went down there, I had some great upper-body violence. The NFL, where you guys were obviously and you guys became the greatest, that was my dream. I always like to say the reasons I didn’t make it to the NFL were, No. 1 , I had some injuries throughout my career that I had to deal with. The other is that Warren Sapp was born.”
Johnson played for the Hurricanes from 1990 to 1994, and he won a national championship with the team in 1991. He played with a number of Miami legends like Sapp, Darryl Williams, Ray Lewis, and even current head coach Mario Cristobal.