Former Lions coach once had to crush the football dreams of a WWE Superstar
If there's one coach who really had a big hand in the Detroit Lions' rebuild to what they are now, it's Duce Staley. He was just huge in establishing the culture this team now has. Before Staley came to Detroit, he was on the Philadelphia Eagles coaching staff from 2011 to 2020. In 2018, when […]
If there's one coach who really had a big hand in the Detroit Lions' rebuild to what they are now, it's Duce Staley. He was just huge in establishing the culture this team now has.
Before Staley came to Detroit, he was on the Philadelphia Eagles coaching staff from 2011 to 2020. In 2018, when he was the Eagles' assistant head coach and running backs coach, he had to break the heart of Matrick Belton. You may not know Belton as WWE superstar Trick Williams.
Williams was a walk-on receiver at South Carolina who went from playing Division 1 football to playing in The Spring League to getting a tryout at the Eagles' rookie mini-camp in 2018.
Recently, Williams went on the Chris Van Vliet show and talked about his tryout with the Eagles and how Staley basically told him that, despite how good he looked there, it wasn't happening.
"The crazy thing is that camp, I was balling, player of the day, like broke it down on my catches. It was insane. I knew for a fact, if they don't keep me on this team, it wasn't meant to be." Williams said. But Duce Staley, he played running back for the Philadelphia Eagles, and at the time he was coaching for the Philadelphia Eagles, and you know, I go to him and I ask him, 'what can I do to make this team?' He said, 'Honestly, there's nothing you can do to make the team. Just try not to mess it up.' I think I learned a valuable lesson that day, you know, sometimes you can only control what you can control, there's no doubt in my mind I was good enough, but honestly, I feel like this is where I'm meant to be."
He's right. Williams started training to be a professional wrestler shortly after and signed with the WWE in 2021. Since then, he's been the NXT twice, the NXT North American champion, and the TNA World champion. Williams is also considered to be one of the biggest up-and-coming wrestlers in the industry. Duce Staley might have created a superstar.
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