Former Miami Dolphins cornerback Trill Williams has made quite the career change.
The 24-year-old, who played college football at Syracuse, was claimed off waivers by the Dolphins just a couple weeks after he wasn’t selected in the 2021 NFL draft.
He secured a spot on their 53-man roster as a rookie, but played only one regular season game and 19 snaps for the defense and special teams.
Williams was hoping for a more prominent role in the 2022 season, but tore his ACL during a preseason game and was placed on injured reserve before being waived the following August.
It seems that experience in the NFL hasn’t deterred him from pursuing his sporting dream – albeit in a different way.
Now, Williams has swapped the football field for the squared circle to start a new career in professional wrestling.
According to reports, he’s signed a deal with WWE after attending a tryout over the summer.
This week, he debuted on TV with a backstage cameo on NXT.
“Trill made his first on air appearance last night,” Bobby Shouse, co-host of The Dive Bar Podcast, wrote on X on Wednesday.
He also shared a short clip of Williams’ cameo, which showed him in the background as Dion Lennox and Ashante Adonis were having a conversation in the locker room.
The former NFL player previously opened up about his love of wrestling – and his tryout – during an appearance on Shouse’s podcast.
“Growing up, the first thing I ever wanted to do was be a wrestler,” he explained.
“I was probably four or five years old, I walked into the living room and my dad was watching it on TV. Ever since then, I fell in love with it.
“But then reality kicked in and I was like, ‘I have no idea how to get into wrestling’. I went back to playing football, basketball, baseball or whatever sport I excelled in.
“Having the opportunity to tryout was a blessing in its own. A lot of people can’t say that. It was pretty cool. I had a great experience.”
Williams, of course, is not the first football player to try and make the jump to pro-wrestling.
Roman Reigns, the top star in the industry, was signed by the Minnesota Vikings in May 2007 after going undrafted that year.
He was diagnosed with leukaemia after his team physical and was later that month, before the Jacksonville Jaguars signed but released him ahead of the season.
Reigns – real name Leati Joseph Anoaʻi – went on to play one season in the Canadian Football League with the Edmonton Eskimos before eventually signing with WWE.
Thomas Pestock, who was known as Baron Corbin during a 12-year run with WWE that ended earlier this month, was also signed by the Indianapolis Colts and the Arizona Cardinals’ practice squad before his wrestling career.
If Williams can do even just half as well as either of those two, he would surely view his move as a success.
