The Rock Pokes Fun at His ‘Chunky’ Football Days

Megan Friedman
Updated
Photo credit: Samir Hussein - Getty Images
Photo credit: Samir Hussein - Getty Images

From Men's Health

Everyone starts somewhere, and that includes the biggest movie stars on the planet. In a series of social media posts over the past week, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson let fans know he hasn’t forgotten his humble roots - or his questionable style choices from the past.

On Friday, the Calgary Stampeders, a Canadian football team where Johnson played in 1995, tweeted his old headshot from his days on the team.

“Now that's a nice headshot, eh @TheRock?” the team tweeted.

Johnson responded, poking fun at how he looked at the time. “6’5 280lbs of hungry nightmare (or thirsty dream pending one’s perspective),” he tweeted. “Also not sure why I thought shaving my goatee but keep my beard was a good choice. Someone throw chunky smiles over here another waffle.”

Johnson was a football player at the University of Miami, and dreamed of joining the NFL. Instead, he entered the Canadian Football League, and joined the Calgary Stampeders after graduating, The Globe and Mail reports. And it seems not many people viewed him as “chunky” at the time. "He was like a Greek god," former player Stu Laird told the newspaper in 2017. "The wives all loved him."

Photo credit: Collegiate Images - Getty Images
Photo credit: Collegiate Images - Getty Images

He ended up getting relegated to the practice squad, and eventually got cut from the team and moved back to his parents’ house in Florida - before he became a pro wrestler, and then, eventually, one of the world’s biggest movie stars.

On the set of his upcoming movie, Jungle Cruise, Johnson posted a video while watching a CFL game featuring his old boss. “Not an easy concept to process, but the idea that sometimes our biggest and most important dreams that DON’T COME TRUE are often times the BEST THING that never happened,” he wrote on Instagram.

Cheers to dreams not coming true 🥃 Not an easy concept to process, but the idea that sometimes our biggest and most important dreams that DON’T COME TRUE are often times the BEST THING that never happened. I’m shooting JUNGLE CRUISE now and right before I get called to set, I look up and see a CFL (Canadian Football League) game on my TV. I do a double take and realize that’s the same field I played on when I played in the CFL. I do a triple take and see the very man who coached and mentored me, but ultimately had to cut me from the team, Wally Buono who is now head coach and GM of the BC LIONS in Vancouver. Playing ball, I was always the “hardest worker in the room” and did everything I could to make the CFL and then hopefully, make it to the NFL where I dreamed of having an All Pro/Super Bowl Champion football career. Instead, I was cut from the team, told I wasn’t good enough - and sent home with $7 bucks to my name. After years of blood, sweat, guts and tears, my dream was over. Fell into depression, didn’t know what to do or where to turn. Eventually, I picked myself back up again, said fuck this and refocused and committed myself to a different path. The rest is history. I’ve been there, so I encourage you to keep working hard and remember that sometimes our dreams that don’t come true, can ultimately become the best thing that never happened.

A post shared by therock (@therock) on Aug 11, 2018 at 8:15pm PDT

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