Fanatics Fest 2026 with Jalen Brunson & Roman Reigns: Jalen's INJURY update, Parade Stories, Reigns Retirement

**Shannon Sharpe** (0:00)
Thank you.

**Chad Johnson** (0:02)
Good morning, good morning. Y'all good? Wait a minute, I can't hear you. Good morning, y'all good?

**Shannon Sharpe** (0:09)
Man, this is amazing. First of all, thank you, Micah Rubin. Thank you, Fanatics, everybody that's involved with this for giving us an opportunity to come share our platform on your platform. We cannot be more thankful than you inviting us out. So again, thank you, Micah Rubin, and everybody involved with Fanatics. An unbelievable event, the best event going in the world today that involves fans and some sports celebs. So again, thank you very much. Give yourself a round of applause. You know what, guys, we're not going to take up too much time because we know you guys want to hear from these guys. Guess what we got today? We got the Tribal Chief coming to the stage, the heavyweight champion of the world, Roman Reigns. And the NBA champion from your own New York Knicks, Jalen Brunson.
I'm ready to get mic'd up. Here it comes, that's it, the ninth World Cup of the World.
And the tribal chief, Roman Reigns. Thank you, thank you.

**Chad Johnson** (1:59)
Thank you, appreciate it, appreciate it. That's dope.

**Shannon Sharpe** (2:21)
Soak it up, soak it up.

**Jalen Brunson** (2:22)
I like it, I like it, I like it.

**Roman Reigns** (2:24)
This is what they do, you know what I mean? And it just reminded me that there's only one way to start this thing, you know what I mean? Fanatics Fest!
Acknowledge me. All right, let's get it.

**Chad Johnson** (2:44)
I like it, I like it, I like it.
Hey, listen, Roman, Roman, you and Jalen, you guys have been friends for some time now. How did that relationship start?

**Roman Reigns** (3:07)
Well, we actually just met for the first time. Yeah, I mean, it's I think something that from a distance we've admired each other's work. We've had a high respect for what we've been able to do in our separate fields.
So yeah, I mean, this was a long time coming and it's actually very cool to meet, meet Jalen and expand the friendship.

**Chad Johnson** (3:29)
I like it.

**Shannon Sharpe** (3:32)
It's been a magical ride for you, but Reigns invited you to Madison Square Garden. What can we expect tonight?

**Jalen Brunson** (3:47)
What to expect tonight?
Honestly, I'm just happy to be surrounded by this aura over here, honestly. Just to be out there with him, I think it's going to be a great time. But I'm going to follow in his footsteps. Obviously, he's the tribal chief, so I'm going to follow suit. Follow suit.

**Roman Reigns** (4:07)
Hey, the king of New York, you just got to show up, baby. That's it. Just show up to the guard and I'll handle the rest.

**Shannon Sharpe** (4:17)
Hey, Roman, I've seen you play D tackle in college. You played in the ACC at Georgia Tech. First team all defense.
What was the transition like from football to wrestling?

**Roman Reigns** (4:31)
Well, the first time I had to put the underwear on, that sucked.
No, I mean, there's a lot of things that translate. I think the physicality, the toughness, the charisma, I wasn't like Ochocinco, I was a D tackle. So, I would talk shit to the O line, but not on the level of captivating the whole world. You know what I mean? So, some people have to really tap into that and figure it out. And that was where for me, everything in Ring and the physicality of it all, that was easy for me. It was the public speaking. It was the character development. It was the psychology of performance and storytelling. It was all the little micro nuances of performing arts. The athletics were easy to me.

**Shannon Sharpe** (5:16)
If you think about it, a lot of you guys' transitions, seemingly like the transition from football to wrestling, Ernie Ladd transition, Wahoo McDaniel transition, Lex Lurie transition, Rock, you and Rock are the more famous ones that transition. What was it about, did you have aspirations of playing in the NFL? It's like, okay, well, I got to transition to something else because this doesn't seem to be going my way. Let me see what else I can do.

**Roman Reigns** (5:39)
Well, that was always it, man. I didn't really want, I wanted to either play football or wrestling was like a true backup. Okay.
It was tough because my whole life was surrounded by it. Even when I was doing good in football, it would end up being like, so your dad wrestled? And it was like, yeah, he did. And so did all my other family members. But let's talk about football, you know what I mean? I just wanted to get on outside of the shadow of wrestling and ended up coming back tenfold. But I was able to build my career up to what it is now and kind of create my own path and also represent my legacy. But it was always either football or wrestling the whole time. But I mean, there was a long time where it was like, this football thing has to work out. I needed it. It was my, I loved it. It was everything to me. And the game, it kind of, you know, it quit me due to circumstances with my health and everything.