BOSTON — Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson brings more than a tough-guy image to play the football coach of juvenile delinquents in "Gridiron Gang." He has the pedigree and the rap sheet.

Johnson says he was arrested nine times by the time he was 17. When he was 14 and living in Honolulu, his arresting officer ordered him to try out for the football team.

"And I went out, and I know what that did for me," the 34-year-old wrestler-turned-actor says in a recent interview. "I was that kid. I was easily that kid who could have been in that prison for kids."

Johnson earned a scholarship to the University of Miami and played on a national championship team. His dreams of the NFL were dashed when he was axed by the Canadian Football League’s Calgary Stampeders.

He calls it his greatest professional disappointment. "I was healthy, and they cut me, and it was at that point I realized I had to close that chapter in my life," he says.

There’s a happy ending, of course. Johnson became the world’s most famous prime-time figure in tights and then pulled a half-nelson on Hollywood. He started out with two supernatural blockbusters, "The Mummy Returns" (2001) and "The Scorpion King" (2002), and recently flexed his comic chops as a gay bodyguard-singer in "Be Cool" (2005).

Now he is reacquainting himself with football. It has been satisfying, he says. Painful, too. He stayed healthy doling out hits in "Gridiron Gang," opening Sept. 15, but severed an Achilles tendon performing a game-action scene in his other football movie, "The Game Plan." It resumes production Sept. 25 after a long delay so that Johnson, who plays a Lothario quarterback with a newly discovered daughter, could heal from surgery.

"I’m thankful this happened," he says, looking down at his plastic cast during this chat at a hotel. "It’s been a blessing in disguise. It forced me to slow down. It forced me to go home to Florida, spend time with my family, and especially my baby girl (Simone, born in 2001). I had never been off during the summer. It forced me to become introspective."

The 6-foot-4 Johnson, who has Samoan and African American heritage, ("Blamoan," one of his characters says), trimmed down to 225 pounds from his cartoon-like physique so he would look like a quarterback. In "Gridiron Gang," he retains the bulk of his WWF glory to better represent authority.

The lead role had floated through Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone after a 1993 documentary about the real-life coach who recruited teenage inmates to play Southern California high schools.

Given today’s police-blotter headlines, football seems to reveal character as much as build it. But Johnson is a believer.

"There’s not 30 things I can remember about my classes," he says, "but there are traits I took from football: setting myself a goal, sacrificing a lot. ... That’s the power of sports."

It helped him cope with the defeats as well. His last action movie, "Doom," spoke for itself at the box office. The hope to cross over from its video-game core audience never materialized, he explains. "It’s not a good feeling when Saturday morning rolls around and you’re waiting to see what your numbers are and they’re not what you expect." An apocalyptic comedy, "Southland Tales," in which he plays an action hero with amnesia, was skewered at the Cannes Film Festival.

But he quickly reminds himself of the conquests. While Johnson did grow up with the love of two parents (now divorced), the family was evicted from two homes and lived from paycheck to paycheck. "This is a good life," he says, looking at his plush surroundings in an empty conference room.

His trademark arched eyebrow and ring catch phrase "Can you smell what the Rock is cookin’?" are moldering in a locker room somewhere. Even his nickname is fading slightly. He likes that the press often places "The Rock" between the Dwayne and Johnson, as does the credit in "Gridiron Gang."

"In time, I hoped movie and performances would just quell any concern about the name," he says.

He knows how to play the interview game. He often compliments a question, and appears open to all topics. When we get around to politics, Johnson, a Republican who spoke at both the Republican and Democratic conventions, will go to the mat for the administration on the war in Iraq.

Want to tick off Johnson? Be an ex-jock and tell him you want to try the "acting thing," as if it were a temp job or a hobby. Johnson recalls storming industry doors armed only with a monologue he did as a guest on "Saturday Night Live."

"If you’re committed to it, it’s hard," he says. "Making good movies is hard. I wanted to eventually become that guy who did a wide array of movies, something reflective of my personality. The art always reflects the artist."