[Sports] XFL: Dwayne Johnson on giving NFL hopefuls the chance to succeed where he failed

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Choctaw Stadium falls silent as the hulking figure of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson takes to the field, microphone in hand.

Just a week after this year's Super Bowl, the opening game of the new XFL season is about to kick off.

The American football league is now owned by Johnson and his ex-wife Dany Garcia, who are both here for a "historic day".

It has taken them three years to create an innovative, ground-breaking league, which has given 400 players a chance to succeed where Johnson failed - by making it to the NFL."I've been there when they told you that the dream is over," Johnson tells the two teams. "But here's the truth: your dream is just beginning.

"You're going to show the world what it's like to be truly hungry, with that chip on your shoulder. I know, because I've got that same chip."

Three months on, Johnson will be at Saturday's championship game (01:00 BST, Sunday), when this season's best players get one last opportunity to show just how hungry they are. Johnson may have become a world-famous wrestling star and actor but before all that he wanted to be a professional football player.Johnson played at the University of Miami, where he met Garcia, and helped them become national champions in 1991.

But after graduating in 1995, he was not selected in the NFL Draft. Despite then signing with a Canadian Football League team, Johnson was released two months into the 1995 season."This was our life, coming out of university," he said. "It was the dream to play football and to make it.

"That was going to be the ticket out. But it never happened for me and for us."Instead, Johnson followed his father's footsteps into professional wrestling while Garcia forged a successful career in finance. And despite separating in 2007, they remain friends and business partners.

Yet Johnson's failure to make it to the NFL still rankles. In 2012 he and Garcia founded a TV and film production company called Seven Bucks - the amount of money Johnson had in his pocket when cut by the Calgary Stampeders. It has also provided the inspiration for the latest iteration of the XFL.

 

Link: https://www.bbc.com/sport/american-football/65523216