Award Winning Actor Reveals Why He Quit Football For a Career in Hollywood: “Never Saw a White Dude This Big In My Life” (2024)

Anthony Mackie is one of the best actors in the world. His appearance in Marvel movies has brought him a lot of fame worldwide. Starring alongside Chris Evans in Captain America, he is an essential part of the Marvel cinematic universe.

He has also been a big fan of the NFL. Furthermore, he has quite often been seen supporting the New Orleans Saints. He was also associated with the EA Madden, the videogame franchise of the NFL.

Unsurprisingly, a career in acting was not always in his mind while growing up. Anthony Mackie recently revealed that he was a D1 football player during his school days. D1 is the most prestigious division of Football at the school level in the USA.

Anthony later decided to quit his football career to pursue acting. This decision came up after Anthony Mackie brutally got outplayed on the field during one of his games.

Anthony Mackie recalls one of the plays on the football field

Anthony Mackie in his appearance on the Late Late Show with James Corden talked about his playing days in school. He claimed that he was a D1 recruit and played in the Safety position.

He spoke about one of the plays during one of his games. Anthony while playing at the Safety position said, “The D back coach came up to me, He’s like ‘The second hole’s gonna open’, Running Back’s gonna come through, When he comes through, You take his head off.”

Anthony added, “Go back 13 yards, snap my helmet, wait for the ball. Ball comes, line shifts, see the hole open up, I explode, 13 yards away, Pow! Pure muscle, What I did not see was the pulling guard coming across the line. Never saw a white dude this big in my life.”

Anthony Mackie decided to quit football following that game

Anthony Mackie further narrated the incident and said, “He hit me, knocked me back 5 yards, stepped on my chest, kept going. I saw the running back go pass me. Unsnap my helmet, and retire.” Mackie said, “I became an actor, that there.”

After this incident, Mackie was done with football. However, his career in acting has been nothing short of legendary either. Unsurprisingly, he still likes to be around the game that he grew up playing. He has been quite often seen attending games, as his love for the game continues.

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