Before he was the most famous actor in the country, before he was a tabloid sensation and a Hollywood legend, Burt Reynolds was a football player. He was a 205-pound running back at Florida State, and football was his passion.
"He had a dream of playing in the NFL," said Lee Corso's, Reynolds roommate at Florida State. "He loved football."
A knee injury ended that dream before Reynolds' football career could take off, however, and so he set his sites on conquering Hollywood instead. Corso remembers Reynolds returning from Summer Stock, a summer theater program in Palm Beach, Florida and announcing he was moving to California to become a star.