From Olympics to WWE to NFL: Gold Medalist’s Career Journey to Football

Gable Steveson is building quite the eclectic resumé.

The 24-year-old Olympic gold medalist signed with the NFL’s Buffalo Bills on Friday, which is quite the change in vocation for Steveson.

Gable Steveson, Olympic wrestling gold medalist, signing with Bills as DT.

He won gold at the 2020 Olympics and is a 2x NCAA wrestling national champion. pic.twitter.com/jG9PEIjxRm

— NFL (@NFL) May 31, 2024

Steveson first burst onto the scene by winning a gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

That monumental win was sandwiched by a dominant collegiate wrestling career that saw Steveson win a pair of national championships and a pair of Dan Hodge Trophies, which is collegiate wrestling’s equivalent of a Player of the Year award.

Per ESPN, Steveson turned all that real wrestling success into a deal with pro wrestling conglomerate WWE in 2021.

In a cruel twist, despite winning at the highest levels of amateur wrestling, Steveson struggled to find much success in the scripted world of professional wrestling.

Despite being touted as something akin to “the next big thing” when he first entered WWE, Steveson never took off. He fizzled with audiences during his few live appearances, before being unceremoniously released during WWE’s semi-annual talent cut in early May.

(In a further cruel twist, Steveson’s older brother — Bobby Steveson, otherwise known in WWE as Damon Kemp —  turned out to be a better WWE project, despite receiving a fraction of the fanfare and having a decidedly less impressive amateur wrestling career.)

This winding path for Gable Steveson has now landed him in Buffalo, New York.

“I have been fortunate to compete at the highest level of competition in my sport but am looking forward to the challenge of seeing how my wrestling skills may translate to football,” Steveson told ESPN. “I am grateful to Coach [Sean] McDermott, [GM] Brandon Beane and the Buffalo Bills organization for giving me this opportunity.”

Steveson will play defensive tackle for the Bills, which profiles him as a fairly small tackle at just 6-foot-1 and 275 pounds. Size-wise, Steveson actually compares favorably to retired Los Angeles defensive tackle Aaron Donald (6-foot-1, 284 pounds), but that’s obviously not to say the wrestler-turned-“wrestler”-turned-defensive tackle will be anywhere near as productive as the likely first-ballot Hall-of-Famer.

Steveson has signed a standard rookie three-year deal with the Bills, ESPN reported.

Ironically, Steveson’s path actually has hints to the winding career of former WWE and UFC champion Brock Lesnar.

Just like Steveson, Lesnar enjoyed a monstrous collegiate wrestling career before going to WWE with lofty expectations. (In fact, Lesnar’s early WWE nickname was literally “The Next Big Thing.”) Unlike Steveson, Lesnar thrived in WWE and also unlike Steveson, Lesnar willingly left WWE and wasn’t fired.

But just like Steveson, Lesnar’s first stop after hanging up both real and scripted wrestling shoes was the NFL, where he had a cup of coffee on the Minnesota Vikings practice squad. And yes, Lesnar played defensive tackle for the Vikings.

If the script for Lesnar’s career actually was a precursor for Steveson, that means Steveson will be headed to the UFC after getting cut in the NFL.

And given Steveson’s illustrious and incredible wrestling talent, a stop in UFC may not be the worst idea for the Olympic gold medalist.