Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson remembers the conversation he had with business partner Dany Garcia during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“She said, ‘I have a crazy idea.’ I said, ‘I love crazy ideas,’” he told local media at Saturday’s XFL Showcase at McKinley High School. “She goes, ‘I think we should buy the XFL, we could acquire it from Vince McMahon.”
Johnson told her that he was in, “100%”, but not for the potential to make a profit.
“Maybe we could just create an opportunity and platform for players,” he continued. “I didn’t make it to the NFL and I wished I had an XFL opportunity back then.”
Prior to becoming one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time and the entertainment mogul he is today, “The Rock” was once a student at McKinley with aspirations to play professional football. He played college football at the University of Miami and briefly in the Canadian Football League before turning to wrestling.
“This was a field where me and my McKinley teammates put our hands in the dirt — this beautiful turf was not here when I was here, it was a rough field — but it taught us so much,” Johnson said. “When I started putting my hands in the dirt here with all my teammates, our goal was to make it to the NFL, but that did not happen, so to be able to come back, put the showcase on, and help create an opportunity for local boys that I once was — and will always be — to live their dream, it’s full circle. It’s a very meaningful day.”
Saturday was the third of six XFL showcases being held this summer, having made stops in College Park, Md., and Bradenton, Fla., last week. The league will hold the remaining three at Jackson State University in Mississippi, Arizona State University, and Choctaw Stadium in Arlington, Texas, next month.
“The XFL is committed to casting the widest net possible to get talent and give them opportunities,” Garcia, who is also the XFL’s chairwoman, said. “Hawaii was immediately one of the places we knew we had to go.”
“A lot of athletes caught our eyes. I think, overall, this is going to be valuable,” Johnson said about the showcase. “Something like this is important because we have such incredible football players here on the island. It’s just a matter of oftentimes getting them seen.”
Garcia and XFL president Russ Brandon noted they and the XFL staff were also pleased with what they saw on the field on Saturday, noting the conditioning of players in the hot Honolulu weather and the speed factor they were looking for.
“Extremely pleased with the athletes today,” Brandon said. “This morning has definitely over-delivered.”
Saturday’s roster of tryouts included players ranging from as young as 20 years old to as old as 33-year-old Bryant Moniz. Including Moniz, there were about a dozen former University of Hawaii football players who participated in drills.
“I’m not happy with my results, but I’m going to just take it and learn from it,” former UH linebacker Solomon Matautia said about his on-field performance.
Matautia, 25, is hoping to continue his dream of playing football while also providing for his family, which includes his 16-month-old son.
“For me, to raise my son surrounded by this game that I love and use the tools that football teaches you in life and use those lessons to teach him so he can grow up and be a great young man, that’s what’s important to me.”
Matautia is working in sales for Verizon — the office setting allows the Campbell graduate to conserve energy to train after work. Once he completes work at 8 p.m., he heads to a gym or a field that has lights to train before heading home at midnight.
“That’s just what I’m going to have to do,” he said. “This is going to provide me with a great opportunity, so I’m going to give it everything.”
