Oba Femi, the Alabama football star?

It apparently isn’t as far-fetched as you would think.

Before he was “The Ruler” of NXT and winner of the NXT Championship and the NXT North American Championship, he was Isaac Odugbesan of Nigeria who joined the Middle Tennessee State track team before transferring to Alabama, where he won the 2021 SEC indoor and outdoor shot put titles and defended his indoor title the following year.

During an appearance on the “No-Contest Wrestling” podcast, Femi was asked if he was ever approached to play football by former Alabama football coach Nick Saban.

“Not personally, but he definitely had his eye on me for sure,” he said, per Fightful.com. “Him and all the strength coaches, especially when we got to the end of the year and we started doing tests to find out our maxes and I’m throwing 700 pounds on the squat and all that so one go around, we have this freaking animal here. It came down to an issue where because I hadn’t played before, I’m from Nigeria, we don’t play football. So, you can’t give a full ride to someone who’s never played in a top tier school like Alabama, let’s just put it that way.”

Femi told AL.com in October his most memorable moment in Tuscaloosa was football-related.

“The one (football) game is Alabama vs. LSU in 2019,” he said. “We actually lost, but that was the very first Alabama game I ever went to, so it has a very special place in my heart.”

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.