In the early 2000s, Brock Lesnar made the jump from amateur to professional wrestling, joining WWE and skyrocketing to fame in quick fashion. Lesnar has spent much of the past 25 years in or around a wrestling ring, but he has had other pursuits as well, including pro football.
Before Lesnar joined WWE, when he first graduated college, then-Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Tony Dungy had been encouraging the athlete to try out for the NFL. At the same time, however, Vince McMahon was recruiting Lesnar into WWE, and the offer of guaranteed money as a wrestler won out against having to fight for a roster spot in the NFL.
By 2004, Lesnar had a different perspective. He had plenty of money, but the exhausting WWE schedule was wearing him down, especially given that he had a young daughter that he wanted to spend more time with. Additionally, it seems as though Lesnar never quite gave up on the idea of playing pro football.
Lesnar quit the company that year, giving up a massive guaranteed contract in the process. He agreed to work through WWE WrestleMania 20, where he lost to Goldberg. Immediately afterwards, he began preparing for an NFL tryout, despite getting injured in a motorcycle accident and the fact that it had been over a decade since he last played football.
Most organizations were understandably dubious, but to one team, his physical assets outweighed his inexperience. The Minnesota Vikings wound up signing Lesnar to a contract that summer, giving the pro wrestler an opportunity to earn his way onto the field.
During training camp, the Vikings first tried Lesnar out on special teams, using his size and strength to disrupt the receiving team on kick returns. One unverified tale told by wide receiver and future "CBS Mornings" host Nate Burleson claims that Lesnar once sought revenge on behalf of Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper. Burleson said he witnessed Lesnar deliver a German suplex to a Kansas City Chiefs player on the sideline during a joint practice after the player was said to have hit Culpepper in the back.
Lesnar then made his first official NFL appearance during the 2004-2005 preseason. He played in several games ahead of the regular season but did not survive the brutal series of cuts leading up to the final roster announcement. The Vikings organization offered Lesnar a spot in the developmental Europa league that the NFL was working on reviving, but Lesnar declined.
Though his NFL stint flopped, Lesnar didn't immediately return to WWE. Instead, he joined New Japan Pro-Wrestling and later began training in mixed martial arts. He'd eventually go on to find success in the UFC before staging a return to WWE. He's been a recurring presence there on a part-time basis over the last decade. Though WWE officials opted not to use Lesnar for a period of time after his name came up in the Vince McMahon sex trafficking scandal, Lesnar made another return to the company at WWE SummerSlam 2025 before going on to defeat John Cena in one of the latter wrestler's final matches.
