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Ric Flair grateful to still be stylin', profilin' along path he treads a little slower nowadays

Posted: Dec 12th 2016 By: Alex Marvez

When he headlines a Legends of Wrestling event Sunday before the Jaguars host the Vikings at Jacksonville's EverBank Field, the thought of “What if?” will never cross Ric Flair’s mind.

Flair may very well have managed to forge an NFL career himself. Flair played on the University of Minnesota’s freshman team in 1969 and says he would have started at right guard the following year when revamped NCAA rules allowed him to join the varsity.

There was just one catch to making the team.

“I didn’t want to go to summer school,” a laughing Flair told Sporting News earlier this week in a telephone interview. “They wanted me to stay for six weeks. I made it for two.

“I said, ‘Screw this.’ If I couldn’t sit in class when the weather was cold, I couldn’t do it when it was 80 degrees outside.”

Leaving the gridiron and school to ultimately pursue pro wrestling was the best move Flair could have ever made.

The 44th anniversary of Flair’s first recorded match — a 10-minute draw with George “Scrap Iron” Gadaski in Rice Lake, Wis. — is Saturday. At the time, nobody could have known the “Nature Boy” would become the industry’s greatest all-around performer through a combination of in-ring talent, showmanship, longevity and popularity that continues to this day.

Although no longer an active wrestler, the 67-year-old Flair remains a regular presence on WWE programming working in a managerial-type role alongside — and sometimes against — his daughter Ashley “Charlotte” Fliehr, who has already started carving her own niche as one of the company’s top young stars.

Flair further connects with fans through his podcasts and events like the one being staged Sunday by Legends of Wrestling that includes appearances by contemporaries like “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, the Nasty Boys and “Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart. Tickets for the event offer a pregame photo opportunity and question-and-answer session as well as the chance to watch a quarter of the Vikings-Jags game with the troop (more information available at jaguars.com/wrestling).

Flair admits the appreciation shown by fans for the entertainment he has provided them can become overwhelming at times.

“I look back on it and think about how much fun I did have,” said Flair, whose list of accomplishments include multiple world title reigns, WrestleMania appearances and headlining the largest card ever documented when a 1995 match with Japanese legend Antonio Inoki drew a reported 190,000 fans to a show in North Korea.

“At the time, I didn’t look at it as providing memories for the future. But thanks to things like the WWE Network, YouTube and people like you being gracious enough to keep my name out there, I’m doing financially better now than when I was wrestling.”

Flair’s ongoing multigenerational and mainstream appeal also is reflected in how many sports entities ask him to attend their practices and games.

Flair’s latest “favorite team” is the football squad at the University of Michigan. Flair became friends with Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh when the latter was head coach in San Francisco. Flair was even flown to Green Bay in January 2014 to give a pregame pep talk before the 49ers’ road playoff victory over the Packers, which was a thrill to players who were watching old “Nature Boy” interviews on YouTube for laughs and inspiration.

Flair spoke at a gala event at Michigan’s signing day earlier this year. He told Sporting News he will be on the sideline for the Wolverines' Orange Bowl matchup against Florida State Dec. 30 in South Florida.

Flair became so excited when discussing Harbaugh’s invitation that he slipped into wrestling mode and proclaimed, “They’re all gonna have to deal with the limousine-riding, jet-plane flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin’-dealin’, Rolex-wearing son of a gun.”

Flair is such an intriguing figure that he will be the first pro wrestler ever featured in an ESPN "30 for 30" documentary. The show will cover both the good and bad in the real-life world of Richard Morgan Fliehr, which means exposing legal, financial and domestic issues to an audience that may be unaware of those away-from-the-spotlight difficulties.

Flair is OK with that. In fact, he participated in the project.

“If it’s the truth, why not?” he said. “I can’t run away from it. I never would. I accept responsibility for what I did wrong and take the adulation for what I did right.”

Flair’s personal life is seemingly headed in the right direction following the devastating 2013 loss of his 25-year-old son Reid, an up-and-coming wrestler who died of a drug overdose. Flair credits that recovery to his fiancee, Wendy Barlow, who appeared in a 1993 wrestling skit as Fifi the Maid.

“She made me realize Ric Flair had to slow down,” said Flair, a four-time divorcee. “That’s a hard task.”

Another positive was getting rehired by WWE to share in his daughter’s success with the company. Because of the party lifestyle reflected in his wrestling character and a travel schedule that often had him away from home for 300-plus days annually, Flair didn’t connect with his children in a traditional way.

“I hope that I’m forgiven for being so insensitive sometimes as husband and father,” Flair said. “I couldn’t have changed my schedule but I could have been home more and been a little more sensitive when I was there.”

When it comes to pro wrestling, however, there are no regrets.

“My legacy, I hope, is — and I feel pretty comfortable saying this — that I worked harder than anybody in the business and sometimes under the worst conditions,” Flair said. “I never wanted to ever leave the crowd thinking they haven’t gotten their money’s worth.

“Fans still enjoy me and I enjoy them. I am thankful.”

Wrestling fans should feel the same that Flair chose the path he did.