New England Patriots Guard Stephen Neal Eyeing Possible UFC Career

ProFootballTalk.com reports that current NFL offensive lineman Stephen Neal has interest in one day trying his hand at MMA:

↵↵Stephen Neal, the New England Patriots guard who is about to become an unrestricted free agent, is not retiring. But he is thinking about what he might do after he finishes his NFL career -- and that might include mixed martial arts.

↵Neal’s agent, Neil Cornrich, told Tom E. Curran of CSNNE.com that Neal, a former NCAA heavyweight wrestling champion, would be interested in signing with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

↵↵I know, when you first hear about an athlete from another sport wanting to try MMA, your eyes roll to the back of your head. And for good reason. When athletes from other sports want to try MMA because they think it looks “cool” and some fledgling promotion gives them the forum to do so, it often lends to the perception that MMA is not a real sport and that any elite, professional athlete could succeed at it.

↵The difference with Stephen Neal.... he actually could.

↵Before he was a three-time Super Bowl Champion for the New England Patriots, Neal was a two-time NCAA wrestling champion for Cal State - Bakersfield. In 1999, Neal defeated some guy named Brock Lesnar to capture his second consecutive title.

↵Stephen Neal was such a great collegiate wrestler in fact, that the dude didn’t even play football in college. After winning the Dan Hodge Award - the equivalent to college football’s Heisman Trophy - Neal went on to win the U.S. freestyle championships, the Pan-American Games, and the World Championship at 286 lbs. You can check out the full list of his wrestling credentials at his page on the National Wrestling Hall of Fame’s website.

↵But after narrowly missing out to qualify for the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Neal gave up on wrestling, headed to the NFL, and the rest is history.

↵But the main point to take away from this story isn’t whether or not Stephen Neal will ever sign with the UFC once he’s done playing football. It’s that the next Stephen Neal might just head straight to the UFC instead of being forced to switch occupations due to lack of oppourtunites. As was mentioned before, Neal didn’t even play footabll in college, yet he was, and is, a successful NFL player.

↵But imagine if the sport of MMA was what it is today ten years ago. You better believe that Neal would have jumped right into the Octagon and most likely would have had and extremely successful career. And you better believe that the next athlete put in the same situation as Neal was a decade ago will be looking toward MMA to continue their athletic career.