Interesting Russ Francis tidbit

[MatthewToy]

Russ Francis was a pro wrestler in the offseason for the first few years of his NFL career until he got a football injury. I only remember him being in the battle royal of Wrestlemania 2 along with other NFL players. But earlier today I saw some tweets about him. I follow Dave Meltzer. He runs the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. He knows anything and everything about the wrestling business past and present and Russ Francis came up. He said that not only was his dad a promoter in Hawaii, but that Russ was looked at as a future "world champion". Which seems odd that they'd put that on a guy who was only available maybe 6 months a year. I tweeted Dave about the validity of that but never got a reply. Understandable. But I'm curious. Had he been a wrestling world champion as an active NFL player, how would the league treat that? Would it be acknowledged during games? Would there be NFL Today pieces about it? Would Howard Cosell bring it up?

[BD Sullivan]

I can recall guys like Walter Johnson of the Browns and Big Daddy Lipscomb wrestling during the offseason. If I'm not mistaken, Alex Karras did it during his "sabbatical" year--since he obviously needed a regular paycheck.

[JWL]

Yes, Karras had a wrestling match against Dick The Bruiser while suspended from the NFL.

[rhickok1109]

The Packers had a lineman named Dick Afflis who became known as the wrestler "Dick the Bruiser." He quit football because he could make more money wrestling.

[Gary Najman]

Did Francis wrestle in 1981 when he took the year off because a contract dispute with the Patriots?

[MatthewToy]

Did Francis wrestle in 1981 when he took the year off because a contract dispute with the Patriots?

I looked that up and couldn't find anything. All I know is Meltzer said he stopped wrestling after a football injury. But he was in the Wrestlemania 2 battle royal in 1986 with other NFL players. And he wrestled for the AWA for a couple years after he retired from football.

[paulksandiego]

He had a brother, Billy Francis, who also wrestled for their father.

[John Grasso]

Did Francis wrestle in 1981 when he took the year off because a contract dispute with the Patriots?

The website wrestlingdata.com is a fantastic source of information about professional wrestling.
It shows 60 matches for Francis - with 10 in 1974, his first year, 35 in 1976, and his last 3 in 1987.