Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson just did something very special for his two former high school football teams. On Thursday, the actor and former WWE Superstar shared a video on his YouTube page that shows him surprising his former high school football teams McKinley High School in Honolulu, Hawaii and Freedom High School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania with band new Project Rock performance gear and customized training programing by the Under Armour’s Human Performance Team. In the video, Johnson is seen addressing the football player at Freedom High School ahead of their then-upcoming homecoming game.
“Number one, I wanted to tell you how proud I am of you guys,” Johnson said. “Here’s why I’m proud — I’m proud of the hard work you put in ’cause that’s what it all comes down to. Whether you win or lose, succeed or fail, it all comes down to the effort that you put in and the hard work that you commit yourselves to.”
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Johnson added: “You know, I have a few mottos, one of which is blood, sweat and respect. The first two you got to give. You got to give the blood, you got to give the sweat, because it’s the third one, the last one, and oftentimes the most important one, is respect. You gotta earn that one.”
Johnson went on to reflect on his time at Freedom. “I walked those halls of Freedom High … we worked our asses off in the weight room, off-season [and] during the season, we worked our asses off in the classroom and we always talked about back then, like, ‘How do we want to be remembered?’ ” Johnson said. “… The most important thing is, I want you guys to think about that: How do you want to be remembered?”
The message from Johnson paid off as Freedom won their game 42-7. “You played hard, you played like the hardest workers in the room,” he said. “You played for blood, sweat and respect. You played like champions, you played like patriots.” The end of the video shows Johnson telling his work with Project Rock and Under Armour and gifted the players new gear for the season. Johnson developed as a football player at Freedom and McKinley before playing at the University of Maimi. He then went on to be one of the top stars in WWE and now is a Hollywood superstar.
