When WrestleMania hits MetLife Stadium next year, The Rock won't be a Super Bowl champion.

But he'll walk onto the field as the People's Champion.

The WWE star and former University of Miami defensive tackle spoke at the press conference to announce wrestling's biggest event is coming to East Rutherford in April of 2013.

He couldn't help but acknowledge his gridiron ties.

"Football was my life for a lot of years," he said. "I played at University of Miami with some great players so I've always had what I call Super Bowl dreams down in Miami of getting drafted and going to the NFL and those are my dreams and playing in the Super Bowl. That never happened so I live vicariously through a lot of these guys and the New York Giants [team] is one of them."

With "Johnson" sewn into his jersey back then, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson won a national championship with the Hurricanes in 1991.

As a member of the notorious fraternity, he keeps tabs on current Giants like Antrel Rolle and Kenny Phillips, both former players at Miami.  

"I'm very proud of those guys," he said. "What happens when you're at University of Miami, there's such a love and a connection of brotherhood that we all have, that we all love and we support each other. It's about The U – whether we have winning seasons or not, but all those guys who go on and play in the NFL, I'm very proud of those guys because that was my goal too. It didn't happen for me. It happened for those guys."

At the end of the interview, Johnson slipped back into his alter ego.

"To be able to come here, home of the Super Bowl champions, on that field where champions were made, as the People's Champion," The Rock paused for a moment, "Very cool."

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