‘How do you want to be remembered?’
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson surprises Freedom football team with epic hype video
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson had a special question for his former high school football team — “How do you want to be remembered?”
Johnson, a 1990 graduate of Bethlehem’s Freedom High school, surprised the team ahead of its homecoming game against Allentown Central Catholic this month with a video, encouraging the players to work hard and do their best.
“I want to show you how proud I am of you guys, and here’s why I’m proud,” Johnson said in a video posted to Twitter by Principal Laurie Sage on Thursday morning. “I’m proud of the hard work you’ve put in, because that’s what it all comes down to — whether you win or lose, succeed or fail, it all comes down to the effort that you put in and the hard work that you commit yourself to. So, I’m proud of you, the consistent hard work that you guys are putting in.
“… I want you to think about how you want to be remembered on the field, how you want to be remembered throughout the halls of Freedom High School,” he said.
Freedom went on to beat Central Catholic 42-7.
Johnson spent his sophomore through senior years at Freedom after a move to Bethlehem from Hawaii, and he became a star defensive tackle there. He continued to play football at the University of Miami and, after graduation, in the Canadian Football League.
After getting cut from the CFL, he started wrestling, becoming a star as The Rock. He then made the transition into movies with “The Scorpion King.”
Johnson encouraged students to “always be the hardest worker in the room, always be the smartest worker in the room.”
He also shared a quote he first heard as a sophomore at the school — “It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.”
In addition to the video, Johnson donated shoes and other athletic gear to the team through a partnership with Under Armour called Project Rock.
“The generosity is obviously huge,” coach Jason Roeder said in the video. “The product is awesome. But I think the video — just that wow moment when that screen went on, and that connection meant so much.”
The video showed highlights from the winning game, as well as reactions from students.
“I don’t say this about many people, but Dwayne Johnson is a hero to me,” student Aamire Gaskins said.