Grappling with real life  (Thanks to Mike Informer)

Times Leader | 01/04/2006 | Grappling with real life

Pro wrestler JBL emphasizes to students the importance of education and keeping a budget.

By MARY THERESE BIEBEL

KINGSTON – If anybody was hoping John Bradshaw Layfield – or JBL, as his fans call him – would demonstrate a few body slams or maybe his trademark “clothesline from hell” finishing move when he visited Bishop O’Reilly High School Tuesday morning … well, sorry, kids.

The professional wrestler, set to appear as part of WWE Smackdown at the Wachovia Arena Tuesday evening, stepped out of a stretch limousine sporting a white cowboy hat and gray business suit – JR Ewing style – and brought a serious message to two sessions of students crowded into a math classroom.

“Learn to balance a checkbook,” he said. “It seems so simple to spend less money than you earn.”

“I blew all my money,” he admitted. “Not on drugs … I traveled a lot, to the Cayman Islands, Europe, Africa ...”

A former Los Angeles Raider, JBL said knee injuries ended his football career, but he got a second chance to work in two other fields – pro wrestling, and financial investments.

“When I compete with people on Wall Street, I’m at a disadvantage,” he said. “I didn’t go to Harvard University, or Yale, or Brown. I went to Abilene Christian and I didn’t even graduate … but I read everything I could read.”

“Are you going to win tonight?” one student asked as another mumbled something about believing the Smackdown would be scripted.

“I don’t know,” JBL responded with a wide-eyed, straight-forward sort of look.

“How do you get along (with the other wrestlers) in real life?” 16-year-old John Horvath asked.

JBL’s answer was to glance around the room. “Is there anyone here you don’t like?”

In any group of people, the celebrity explained, there are some you like more than others.

During his visit to the local high school, JBL called himself “a JoePa fan” who roots for Penn State, revealed he’d like to lose 20 pounds from his 6-foot-6, 290-pound frame, and said he misses Texas now that he lives in New York.

Fans probably already know he’s no stranger to pain.

“I broke my back this summer,” he said matter-of-factly.

Then there was the time a cue stick pierced the skin near his mouth during a wrestling match with a pool hall setting.

“And I can only move my arm this far,” he said, lifting his left arm a few inches.

After their visitor left, math teachers Linda Rakauskas and Barbara Warman said they were pleased with what he told the students about education and learning to keep a budget.

“I’m always telling them math is practical for daily life,” Rakauskas said.