Roman Reigns is one of the biggest names in the WWE Universe. Wrestling runs in the blood of Reigns who is part of the illustrious Anoa’i wrestling family, which includes the likes of former WWE superstars such as Sika Anoaʻi, The Usos, Rikishi, and Umaga.

Known as Joe Anoa’i growing up, Reigns had another field of interest apart from wrestling. And that was gridiron football.

Growing up in Pensacola, Florida, Roman Reigns quickly developed an affinity towards the sport beloved by Americans. As a defensive end,

Roman Reigns played for Pensacola Catholic High School and Escambia High School. He was even named Defensive Player of the Year by the Pensacola News Journal.

And Reigns took some of that talent of his into the college circuit as well when he was part of Georgia Institute of Technology’s football program.

A team captain in his senior year, Roman Reigns was named to the first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in 2006 and also earned All-ACC first-team honors.

But his footballing journey didn’t end there. In fact, Roman Reigns went extremely close to living out his dream by being signed by an NFL franchise.

Roman Reigns played for two NFL teams

Despite Roman Reigns’ impressive showing, he went undrafted in the 2007 NFL Draft. But the Minnesota Vikings quickly swooped in to sign Reigns as an undrafted free agent.

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But his stint with the Vikings was tragically cut short. During a team physical, Reigns was diagnosed with Leukemia and was consequently released within a month of joining the side.

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The Jacksonville Jaguars later signed him but released him just a week before the start of the 2007 NFL season. Later in 2008, the former defensive end took his services up north to play for the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League.

Reigns featured in the five games for the franchise before being released by them in November 2008. This ultimately prompted the WWE Universal Champion to call time on his pro football career.

Roman Reigns eventually joined the WWE in 2010 and has since then gone on to hold multiple championships to establish himself as one of the most dominant athletes of the sport.