NFL Bills sign Tokyo Olympic wrestling champ Steveson

Gable Steveson, super-heavyweight freestyle wrestling champion at the Tokyo Olympics, has signed a free agent contract with the NFL Buffalo Bills, the club announced on Friday, Steveson’s 24th birthday.

Steveson will be a defensive tackle and wear jersey number 61 for the Bills, who have reached the NFL playoffs for the past five seasons but haven’t reached the Super Bowl since 1993.

Steveson defeated Georgia’s then-world champion Geno Petriashvili 10-8 in the 125kg final in 2021 at Tokyo, the American becoming the youngest freestyle Olympic champion in the weight class at age 21.

He spent the past three years with professional wrestling’s WWE, where his older brother Bobby performs, before being released in early May.

Steveson was a two-time US college champion wrestler for the University of Minnesota in 2021 and 2022, winning the Hodge Trophy those years as the top US college wrestler. He went 48-0 in dual meet competitions and 85-2 overall in his college career.

Steveson was named after iconic US wrestler Dan Gable, the 1972 Munich Olympic 68kg freestyle wrestling champion.