Oba Femi Explains Why He Didn’t Pursue College Football at the University of Alabama

– During a recent edition of No-Contest Wrestling, WWE NXT Champion Oba Femi discussed his collegiate athletic career as a track and field athlete at Middle Tennessee State University and the University of Alabama. During the interview, Femi was asked if he was ever approached about playing football for Alabama by coach Nick Saban. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):

Oba Femi on if he was ever approached about playing football: “Not personally, but he definitely had his eye on me for sure. Him and all the strength coaches, especially when we got to the end of the year and we started doing tests to find out our maxes and I’m throwing 700 pounds on the squat and all that so one go around, we have this freaking animal here.”

On not having played football before: “It came down to an issue where because I hadn’t played before, I’m from Nigeria, we don’t play football. So, you can’t give a full ride to someone who’s never played in a top tier school like Alabama, let’s just put it that way.”

On January 7, Oba Femi became WWE NXT Champion, beating reigning champion Trick Williams and Eddy Thorpe in a Triple Threat Match to win the title at the WWE NXT New Year’s Evil special. The event was held at the Shrine Expo Hall in Los Angeles, California.