Carlos Del Rio-Wilson played several sports as a child, including basketball and baseball. However, none of them brought him as much joy as football. He convinced his father, Carlos Del Rio, to let him play when he was just 5 years old.
The elder Del Rio quickly recognized that his son was enormously talented and unusually dedicated to a sport for such a young age. He pushed his son to be better, sometimes near the breaking point.
“I had trainers that would run him uphill when he was 8 years old and 9 years old in 100-degree weather up here [in Georgia],” Del Rio said.