10 Wrestling Facts We Didn't Know Last Week (July 6)

3. Vince McMahon Almost Bought An NFL Team Pre-XFL

Fans watch during the first half of an NFL football game between the Minnesota Vikings and the New York Jets, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2014, at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)
Ann Heisenfelt/AP

"Bruce, I'm buying the Vikings".

Those were the words of one Vince McMahon during a meeting in 1998. Ex-creative team member Bruce Prichard and other WWF writers had no idea what their boss was talking about, and he wasn't keen to specify. After that, he moved on to other business, and it wasn't until Prichard spotted news reports linking McMahon to the NFL's Minnesota Vikings that he put two and two together.

Years before Vince's own XFL idea came to fruition, he was passively interested in purchasing a major sports franchise. The Vikings, who were put up for sale by a fractured management group, were also linked with military novelist Tom Clancy. The whole thing was like a circus, and McMahon wanted in on the press.

Bruce shared this on his Something To Wrestle With podcast, and he firmly believed back then that Vince's interest was a mere publicity stunt. The more he started to hear McMahon discuss the idea seriously though, Prichard began thinking the takeover might actually happen.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.