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Former NFL defensive lineman Derek Wolfe kills huge mountain lion in Colorado

DENVER — Former NFL defensive lineman Derek Wolfe has gone against large opponents during his career, but his latest foe was one big cat.

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Wolfe, who played eight of his nine NFL seasons with the Denver Broncos and appeared in Super Bowl 50, posted the photograph on his Instagram account on Thursday. Wolfe, who stands 6 feet, 5 inches and played collegiately at the University of Cincinnati, was nearly engulfed by the big cat in the photo he posted.

Wolfe said he received a call from a friend in Colorado who was a hunting guide to see if he wanted to stalk a giant male mountain who had been “wreaking havoc” in a rural neighborhood, KDVR-TV reported. The mountain lion had already killed two of the woman’s dogs and was living under her porch.

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife said on Friday that Wolfe is a licensed hunter who is in good standing with the state, The Denver Post reported.

“Prospective hunters applying for a mountain lion license must also pass a certification course, an extra requirement for this species, before purchasing a license,” the agency told the newspaper in a statement, adding that Wolfe has “followed the mandatory mountain lion reporting steps.

Wolfe said that he was exhausted, dehydrated and cramping when he used his bow and fatally shot the lion, the Post reported.

“Then I had to crawl backwards down the mountain with him to get him to the truck,” Wolfe wrote on Instagram. “I feel 10 feet off a rock face on the way down lol.

“Any guess how big this thing was?”

The current mountain lion hunting season runs until March 31, the Post reported.