Moose has established himself as one of the top stars in Impact Wrestling. But before he made the jump to professional wrestling, Moose was known as Quinn Ojinnaka, an NFL offensive lineman. In an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, Moose revealed one of his most memorable moments while playing in the NFL.
“Definitely the biggest moment from my whole time in the NFL would have to be my first start as a rookie and I think that came against… I want to say it was the 49ers?” Moose exclusively told PopCulture. “I remember just how nervous I was going into that game. Obviously, you have your first start ever in professional football and you’re playing against the best in the world at every position so I remember going in there very, very, very nervous and I remember having a good game.”
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Moose, 38, was selected in the fifth round by the Atlanta Falcons after playing college football at Syracuse. He spent four seasons with the Falcons and protected quarterbacks Michael Vick and Matt Ryan. Following his time with the Falcons, Moose was traded to the England Patriots in 2010 and was active for eight games. In 2011, Moose signed with the St. Louis Rams but was released before the season began. In October 2011 Moose signed with the Indianapolis Colts and was with the team for the rest of the year. He signed with the Rams again in 2012 but was released in October of that year. Overall, Moose played in 62 NFL games with 20 starts.
After the NFL, Moose began his pro wrestling career and competed in Ring of Honor and New Japan before joining Impact. Moose said that some of his former NFL teammates come to see him compete in the ring. “Oh, yeah, in fact, I focused on a couple of them today to see if they’re going to show up to the show next week which one of them is,” Moose said. “I mean, they’ve all been supportive. These are guys who have come to multiple of my matches to show love and show support so they all root for me and they’ll show their support in different ways.” Since joining Impact, Moose has won the Impact World Championship, the TNA World Heavyweight Championship and the Impact Grand Championship.
