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Eagles’ Vinny Curry an all-pro wrestling fan

It was a bright, sunny day in Northern California on Sunday, March 29, and Vinny Curry soaked in the beautiful weather at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, home of the San Francisco 49ers.

It was the first time the 6-foot, 3-inch 279-pound NFL defensive lineman had been to the stadium since Sept. 28, 2014, when he and the Eagles fell to the 49ers, 26-21 in a dramatic early-season matchup between NFC playoff participants from the season before.

Curry wasn't returning to the site of the Eagles' first loss of 2014 just to relive a bad memory. In fact, his trip to California had nothing to do with football at all. On this day, he was merely a fan – one of more than 70,000 attending the biggest event on the pro wrestling calendar, WrestleMania 31.

For Curry, being a professional football player has its perks. He gets to live out his childhood dream of playing a game for a living and provide for his family. But he also gets to support his insatiable appetite for pro wrestling.

Taking trips to WrestleMania used to be simply a pipe dream for a child from Neptune, N.J. Now, it has become an annual tradition.

"It's a pretty cool experience just to have the funds to even go to these events or be a part of it," said Curry, 26. "It's something that you always told yourself that you want to do, and to be able to do it is just a plus."

"When you go to these wrestling events, you turn everything else off," he added. "It's the offseason. It's time to relax, let your hair down and just be yourself."

But WrestleMania is only one day out of the year. Curry has kept his finger on the pulse of the sport most of his life.

Curry's interest in wrestling started with his father, Vincent. When Vinny was as young as five years old, his father, a big wrestling fan himself, used to take him to Blockbuster and allow him to rent videos every Friday. Like clockwork, he picked up a new wrestling video each trip.

"Being a wrestling fan at that age and seeing classic wrestling video tapes, you want to watch it, and when you watch it, you start learning more and you become more knowledgeable of what happened," he said.

Between watching wrestling every Monday night and renting a different video every Friday, Curry's fandom soon grew into an obsession that has endured.

When he takes the field for the Eagles, Curry is not channeling all-time great defensive linemen such as Reggie White and Bruce Smith. When he's on the field chasing down quarterbacks, he channels some of his favorite wrestlers from his childhood such as "Macho Man" Randy Savage, The Ultimate Warrior, Bret "Hitman" Hart, Hulk Hogan, and his favorite of favorites, "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair.

It's safe to say that wherever Curry goes, so does professional wrestling. He's even brought it with him into the Eagles' locker room, where he uses his locker partially as a shrine. There's a poster dedicated to Savage and a feathery boa reminiscent of the ones Flair donned on the obscenely expensive robes he wore to the ring, among other memorabilia.

His Eagles teammates have had no choice but to notice Curry's level of enthusiasm.

"It's who I am," Curry said. "I think it's pretty cool. You'd be surprised how many people in the National Football League or in the NBA actually follow wrestling and are big wrestling fans.

"I actually got a lot of my teammates back into watching it, like DeMeco Ryans, Jason Peters," he added. "I talk about it so much that now they start watching it and they're taking pictures and they send it to me and I just start laughing. People used to watch it and they'd be like, 'I used to watch it back in the day,' but I still watch it. I can give you a full rundown on what's going on."

If Curry had his way, he'd take all his teammates to WrestleMania, especially if it were held in the team's Lincoln Financial Field, just so they can experience what he has experienced the last two years at the biggest show in wrestling.

"Just to be among everyone and everyone is having similar conversations about what's going on, their predictions about what's going to happen, it was just a great atmosphere to be a part of because you can step out of football or being a football player and just be a regular fan of another entertainment brand," he said.

Eagles fans don't have to worry too much about losing their promising young defensive lineman to a potential career in wrestling. Curry knows where his bread is buttered and still has football as his No. 1 passion.

However, when the WWE hosted the Royal Rumble in Philadelphia in January, Curry mentioned in passing to the Eagles public relations department that he wanted to participate in the Royal Rumble match as a surprise entrant. He jokingly said he would have been thrown out of the match in two seconds, but he would have loved the opportunity to hear the crowd's reaction once "Fly Eagles Fly" blared across the speakers of the Wells Fargo Center.

"People can say what they want to say about [wrestling], but those [wrestlers] are some true athletes," he said. "That stuff isn't easy."

"I'll definitely consider doing it once I'm done playing, but just because I'm a fan of wrestling, football is always my love and passion. It's what I love to do. I'm the ultimate fan of that."

Wrestling might not be as real as football, but Curry's passion for it is as real as the grass he plays on at Lincoln Financial. He carries it with him every day. He'll carry it to Eagles training camp. He'll carry it to opening night in Atlanta, and he'll also have it with him when the Eagles make their annual trip to AT&T Stadium to face the rival Dallas Cowboys on Nov. 8.

If the last two years are any indication, Curry will carry his passion and love of pro wrestling into AT&T Stadium again in early April, except this time for WrestleMania 32.

The Cowboys will be the furthest thing from his mind then. On that day, he'll soak in the spoils of being a wrestling fan once again.