WWE executive has keen eye on NFL Draft

[Black Widow]

BY JIM VARSALLONE
jvarsallone@MiamiHerald.com

John Laurinaitis, the senior vice president of talent relations for World Wrestling Entertainment, won't be watching the NFL Draft on Saturday to scout wrestling talent.

He's got other reasons -- mainly one reason.

His nephew, James, is a top NFL prospect, starting three years at middle linebacker for the Ohio State Buckeyes. An accomplished football player, James was awarded the 2006 Nagurski Trophy and the 2007 Butkus Award as the top college linebacker. The 6-4, 244-pounder is also a three-time NCAA All-American (2006-08).

''I just talked to my nephew [Wednesday],'' John said. ``The deal with James is, and I've talked to James about this. He is a very unique individual. His goals in college were to graduate, which he did; he made a promise to [Ohio State] coach [Jim] Tressel that he'd play at least four years for him, which he fulfilled.

``He could have probably gone out for the draft after his junior year, and some people have speculated that he may have dropped in the draft this year compared to if he came out last year.''

Whether he drops or not is speculative. James still has very good credentials.

''I have a favorite football team. Mine is the Tampa Bay Bucs,'' John said, ``but the bottom line is James just wants to play football. I even asked James where would he like to play and his exact words were, `Uncle John, I don't care who drafts me. I just want to play football. I want the opportunity to play the sport that I love.'''

James is the son of John's brother, Road Warrior Animal. Football is his top priority and first love, but wrestling is also in the blood.

''James would do great as a wrestler,'' John said. ``James has a great personality. He's very athletic.

``Over WrestleMania 25 [Weekend], we had a practice ring set-up in the hotel, and James came down to Houston because he was meeting with the Houston franchise, and he came by and visited all the boys. As you can imagine, he knows a lot of the wrestlers like Undertaker and Triple H from his father and also me being in the business.

``He was in the ring, playing around, jumping off the top rope, having fun. He was like a kid in a candy store.''

We will be seeing James on television on Sundays rather than Mondays (WWE Raw), Tuesdays (WWE ECW), Thursdays (WWE Superstars) or Fridays (WWE SmackDown) as James sparked a lot of interest from NFL teams.

''James had a lot of visits. He talked to I think 23 teams at the camp,'' John said. ``I even talked to the Phoenix coach [Ken Whisenhunt], when I was out in Phoenix, because we're doing WrestleMania 26 out there, and a lot of coaches just wanted to meet him because they wanted to know why he went back his senior year and how he reads plays because he makes plays.

``He may not be the fastest guy out there, but he's always around the ball.''

In 2008, James had a career-high 130 tackles in 13 games. He also made seven tackles for loss, four sacks, four pass breakups and two interceptions.

[DUKE NUKEM]

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