Transcripts

ERIN GALBALLY: Brock Lesnar is used to the limelight.

BROCK LESNAR: The camera likes to follow me wherever I go. But that's all-- I guess I got a pretty face, so everybody wants me on camera.

ERIN GALBALLY: Beauty, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. Lesnar stands 6 foot 3 and weighs in at about 290 pounds. His buzz cut hair rings a massive head and a cauliflower ear. His neck is thicker than many people's legs. And the rest of his body is proportionately huge. It's the first week of Vikings training camp in Mankato. It's lunchtime, and Lesnar's already put in three hours under the hot summer sun. He's number 69 on the roster, and only just this morning, made his first tackle.

BROCK LESNAR: It's something I needed for today. It was something I needed to show the coaching staff. And I don't know, more or less. I think I just fell into it. But I mean, that's the way it goes too. I was working hard. I need that.

ERIN GALBALLY: After the morning session, Vikings head coach Mike Tice called the tackle Lesnar's first kiss. But there's a long way to go before Lesnar and the Vikings develop a more lasting relationship. Lesnar has a basic contract with the team, which only assured he would be welcome to turn up for training camp. Lesnar's arrival has prompted a lot of interest and a lot of skepticism.

It's almost unheard of for an athlete to make the NFL without college ball experience. Another of Lesnar's many challenges is to become a team player, after years of taking on all comers. In March, he retired from professional wrestling, where he was a dominant force. He says it's hard to compare his time with World Wrestling Entertainment with life as a rookie football player.

BROCK LESNAR: I was in the entertainment business. I was an entertainer. Probably the only thing that I can compare from the WWE to here is probably the physicality maybe. Getting in and out of that ring every night for 280 days a year, that's hard on a man's body. And I'm feeling, I'm feeling some of those aches and pains that I used to feel. And I'm 27 years old. I'm not a young man anymore. In this league, I'm not young.

ERIN GALBALLY: Lesnar grew up on his family's farm in Webster, South Dakota. When he was very young, he delighted in picking up heavy objects. He did it so often, he developed two hernias by the age of five. By the time he graduated from high school, he could lift a four-door Chevy off the ground.

At the University of Minnesota, he made his mark as a wrestler. He won the NCAA heavyweight title in 2000 and attracted the attention of the pros. Soon, he was taking on The Rock and Hulk Hogan. He says he wishes he could have made the switch to football four years ago. But now, with a bank account filled with money from his days with WWE, he says he felt confident attempting the jump.

BROCK LESNAR: I've been to all 50 states, 30 different countries, and been on top of the world, been on the bottom of the world. And now I'm just happy and doing my thing.

ERIN GALBALLY: The move has been bittersweet for wrestling fans like eight-year-old Taylor Olson. He traveled with his family from Fargo to watch Lesnar practice with the Vikings.

TAYLOR OLSON: It's going to be no fun when I'm watching wrestling now.

ERIN GALBALLY: If his football career doesn't take off, Lesnar may return to the ring. But those who have tracked his athletic career say it's possible Lesnar's success on the football field will mean he'll once again be dubbed the next big thing. I'm Erin Galbally, Minnesota Public Radio, Mankato.