Titans Sign Wrestler After Failed Olympics Bid

Adam Coon, who has not played football since high school, had more than 100 victories more than defeats at Michigan.

Adam Coon was once a decorated football player.

At Fowlerville High School, which is in between Lansing and Detroit, Michigan, he was an all-state linebacker (2012) and honorable mention offensive lineman (2010, '11). He earned All-Livingston County Defensive Player of the Year honors (2013) and was a four-time all-league offensive lineman and defensive lineman/linebacker.

Coon has not played football since.

Despite that, he'll get a shot in the National Football League with the Tennessee Titans, who signed him as an offensive lineman Friday.

His layover from football presumably is not a case of him not wanting to play the game in college. It almost certainly had everything to do with how dominant he was as a wrestler.

Most recently, Coon had a shot to qualify for the 2021 Olympic Games. The 6-foot-5, 300-pounder earned a spot on the U.S. men’s team earlier this spring. Coon traveled to Bulgaria for a qualification tournament in May, where he ultimately lost to Ukraine’s Mykola Kuchmii in the 130-kilogram Greco-Roman quarterfinals.

The Big Ten is arguably the nation’s best conference for wrestling, and Coon lived up to those standards and more at the University of Michigan. He ranked at the No. 2 overall recruit by and the No. 1 heavyweight wrestler by InterMat.

With the Wolverines, Coon went 116-15 over five seasons for a winning percentage of .885, which ranks sixth in the program’s history. He ranked 22nd in total wins. By the end of his career at Michigan, he was three-time NCAA All-American and a two-time NCAA finalist.

It’s unclear why Coon has decided to make a run at professional football. But a 2018 article in The Michigan Daily, a student-run newspaper, may explain why the Titans were interested. Coon told the publication that teams considered him an offensive line prospect because of his size strength and athletic ability.

“It’s more just about seeing if there’s any interest, and then we’re gonna move forward if that’s the route I want to take,” Coon told The Daily.

He became a force on the wrestling mat at Flowerville High School. He finished with a 212-3 record, earning Michigan’s ‘Mr. Wrestler’ award and the Detroit Athletic Club’s High School Athlete of the Year award in 2013. He earned All-Livingston County Wrestler of the Year honors in each of his four high school seasons. He won four state championships.

Several other NFL players have collegiate wrestling backgrounds. Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis starred in high school in Florida. Four-time Pro Bowl fullback won an NCAA championship. In recent years, the Titans had players such as linebacker Zach Brown and defensive lineman Karl Klug who were accomplished high school wrestlers but focused on football in college.

Hall of Fame coach John Madden once said that he wished all of his offensive linemen had wrestling backgrounds.

The Titans are taking that advice here. And Coon presumably hopes to be the next player on the list of many decorated wrestlers-turned-NFL standouts.