“Goodbye. I Love You”: Dwayne Johnson Laughs at Almost Three-Decade Old Heartbreak Involving His Grandmother and His Failed NFL Career

There’s no one who could fail at their biggest dream and then laugh about it. But almost three decades later that is what Dwayne Johnson did. At this point, having achieved success in countless competitive industries, there’s hardly anything that Johnson hasn’t achieved. Like his most difficult action scenes in Hollywood, Johnson looks at obstacles and runs forward to complete them.

But there was a time in his life when he started his professional sports career, he got his biggest rejection. Not only did this incident spark a light in him that would drive him forward, but it also made him turn around his entire life. If that moment in life didn’t happen, we may not had The Brahma Bull in this shape and form today.

Dwayne Johnson recalls a story from the day the NFL rejected him

After almost three decades to that milestone moment in The Rock’s life, he can laugh about it unflinchingly. On the Pivot podcast, Johnson opened up about that moment when he got the call from the NFL about not being selected.

While talking about getting the call from the NFL, he said, “Picked up that phone and I said hello and I hear Tanumafili. Tanumafili is my Samoan name from my grandmother who passed away. I was like, oh Grandma, she’s like, you get drafted yet to the NFL. No, grandma no goodbye. I love you, boom. Anyway, it’s shaped me and helped me.”

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The hosts even mention that one of them, Ryan Clark was also undrafted but rose to great heights afterward. Johnson took the same trajectory and moved up the ladder after his first failure. But he is back to the industry that rejected him all the back in 1995.

How did Dwayne Johnson bring back football into his life?

While we all know about his historic run in WWE and his countless blockbuster action movies, people will have been noticing his recent endeavor. While NFL is one of the biggest leagues for footballers, not everyone gets drafted. There are no alternatives for these athletes and they end up quitting the profession. But Johnson’s XFL is providing a good alternative to those players.

In an Instagram post, Johnson made it clear that his XFL is a place for people to rebuild themselves into legends. Even after being rejected by this industry, Johnson is back at it, attempting to change the reputation of the XFL and build successful careers for other footballers.

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Tell us what you think about this sweet story from Johnson in the comments below.