National Football League
Gagne joined the National Football League (NFL) soon after by being drafted in the 16th round (145th pick) of the 1947 NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears. Bears owner George Halas prevented Gagne from pursuing both football and wrestling (likely due to former Bear Bronko Nagurski having moonlighted as a professional wrestler during the height of his NFL career), and forced Gagne to make a choice. In a 2006 interview for WWE, Verne's son Greg Gagne mentioned that wrestling was a much better paying job at the time than playing football (as recent as the 1970s, it was not uncommon for NFL players to have a second job during the NFL offseason to help make ends meet), and as a result Verne chose wrestling over football.
Read more about this topic: Verne Gagne
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