Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson wasn't 15 in this football photo — he was 23

In early 2025, social media users shared an image that appeared to show a young version of the actor and professional wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson sprinting in a red football uniform bearing the number 74. Many high-reach posts claimed that Johnson was just 15 years old in the image. 

"Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson at age 15, Aspiring football player, 1987," one X user captioned the image in a post (archived) that reached more than 240,000 views as of this writing. 

(X user @FBGreatMoments)

The same claim also spread on Facebook.

The photo is genuine — it was not created using artificial intelligence software nor manipulated using digital editing tools. It does authentically show Johnson — but not at age 15. In fact, the photo dates to 1995, when he was 23 and a member of the practice roster of the Calgary Stampeders, a Canadian Football League team. In other words, the claim that the photo shows a 15-year-old Johnson is miscaptioned.

What we know about the photo

Johnson joined the Stampeders' practice roster in 1995 after going unselected in the National Football League draft. He was with the team for about three months at the beginning of the 1995 season, roughly between late May or June and August of that year. Johnson was born May 2, 1972, making him 23 at the time the photo was taken.

Johnson himself shared the image on Instagram in March 2021, writing, "The CFL changed my life."

(Instagram user @therock)

Johnson previously shared another X user's post featuring the same photo in 2018. The official Calgary Stampeders X account also posted it in 2014, writing, "Dwayne Johnson was on Stamps practice roster in 1995. He later gained fame as a wrestler and actor."

Dwayne Johnson was on Stamps practice roster in 1995. He later gained fame as a wrestler and actor @TheRock #TBT pic.twitter.com/v704KgwrLq

— Calgary Stampeders (@calstampeders) September 25, 2014

Johnson replied, "$7 bucks in my pocket when Wally released me. Defining low point, but motivated me to do more. #Grateful #Grind #UncleWally." The "Wally" Johnson referred to was Wally Buono, the Stampeders coach who eventually cut Johnson from the team's practice roster.

Neither Johnson nor the Stampeders provided specific information about who took the photograph or the exact date it was captured. However, given the evidence for the time period Johnson was on the team's practice roster, it is likely the photo dated to mid-1995. 

Daryl Slade, a self-described "Calgary Stampeders' official historian" and author of the book "Stampeders… The Years of the Horse," wrote on X that Johnson "only played exhibition games in 1995, but was on the practice roster for about 3 months. Wally Buono came close about 3 times to dressing him according to newspaper stories." In August 2023, Slade also shared a Calgary Herald newspaper clipping from May 31, 1995, which confirmed Johnson was 23 when he joined the team and included a photograph of Johnson that was nearly identical to the one investigated here, down to the jersey number:

When Dwayne Johnson came to Calgary Stampeders he had an eye on a pro wrestling career, following his grandfather and father, he told Allan Maki in May 31, 1995, Calgary Herald article. Later in the year he became 'The Rock' in WWE and is now the highest-paid Hollywood actor. pic.twitter.com/LKVHvugmDR

— Daryl Slade (@Stampeders1945) August 25, 2023

The newspaper clipping was also available via the Newspapers.com website:

(Newspapers.com)

In Johnson's 2000 autobiography "The Rock Says" (Page 147), available via the Internet Archive, he said the Stampeders' training camp began in June 1995, further confirming he was 23 at the time. (The May 31, 1995, date of the Calgary Herald article suggests the training camp may in fact have started slightly earlier.) 

Johnson explained in the book (Page 151), "When you're a practice player in the CFL, you are not the busiest person in the world. You practice only four days a week, and you don't dress for games. When the team has a road game, you don't even make the trip," adding that as a practice player he was not expected at the facility training on Fridays or weekends and did not participate in regular-season games.

Origin of the rumor

The claim about Johnson's age in the photograph likely stemmed from a different photo he posted to Instagram in October 2019, which he said showed himself at 15. In the text of that post, Johnson said the photo depicted "that special time when I was a 15yr old punk kid, 6'4, barely 200lbs, creepy mustache and forced to leave Hawai'i to live in Nashville."

(Instagram user @therock)

The photograph from the 2019 post later circulated on social media with a caption reading, "The Rock being The Rock even at 15 years old in 1987." It's likely that social media users conflated the two photos, misapplying the caption from the photo of Johnson's teenage years to the later image from his CFL days.

We've fact-checked other claims regarding Johnson, including assertions that a photograph of him allegedly wearing a "Keep America Trumpless" T-shirt was real and a rumor that he left traditional Hollywood to join tech billionaire Elon Musk's new "non-woke" film studio.