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As a young man, Buford Pusser, the real-life sheriff who this remake is based upon, wrestled professionally across the South as "Buford the Bull". Dwayne Johnson, who plays the character inspired by him, began his acting career as a professional wrestler and was coincidentally nicknamed the "Brahma Bull".
At the beginning when Chris Vaughn asks the sheriff what happened to the former sheriff it is said that the guy was a great man but they found one day he had mysteriously skidded off a deserted road and died hitting a tree. This is a reference to how the real Buford Pusser died.
Director Kevin Bray wanted to update the "Pusser stick" by making it a baseball bat instead of a piece of wood but there were objections, so the compromise was to just add a handle.