Ohio State Buckeyes star and Miami Dolphins draft pick Raekwon McMillan was named after a leading member of the legendary rap group, Wu-Tang Clan. Ask the young man himself. Raekwon, aka The Chef aka Shallah Raekwon aka Lex Diamond, inspired the linebacker’s mother:
Yep, Raekwon McMillan of the Dolphins was named after Wu-Tang member
But he’s more of a Meek Mill fan.
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
“Yeah, some of his old-school stuff is pretty cool,” McMillan responded when asked if he likes Raekwon’s music. “My mom liked the name, the Wu-Tang clan and all of that. She liked the rap name, not his real name, but his rap name. So that’s what she named me.”
McMillan is more of a Meek Mill fan, but he does have one special request from the rap star — and you can help.
“I’d like to meet him one day,” McMillan said. “Other than that, it’s just my name.”
The rapper, born Corey Woods, has explained his better-known name as follows:
I got the name Raekwon The Chef because at one point I was in the Nation of Islam, and I was given a name, but only the Raekwon part was suitable for the music, so that’s where I got that.
Per the Social Security Administration, about 2,000 people in the United States have been named Raekwon at birth, almost all of them in the mid-90s.
As we’d noted when he was a five-star recruit in 2012, seeing sons of Jon Bon Jovi, Deion Sanders, Diddy, David Robinson, Ken Griffey, Jr., and a grandson of Jack Nicklaus head to college provided for YOU ARE OLD moments, as did seeing recruits named Shaquille and Peyton. But a player named after a rapper who’d just released his fifth solo album? WE FELT SO OLD.
Having won a national championship, All-American recognition, and three pairs of Golden Pants [for beating Michigan], there really wasn’t anything more for McMillan to accomplish in Columbus. His name will almost assuredly be announced in the first two days of the NFL Draft this April. Regardless of how his career turns out at the next level, one things is clear: McMillan deserves to have his name mentioned aside the best Ohio State linebackers of all time.
The Hinesville, Ga. native was twice All-Big Ten, a 2015 finalist for the Butkus Award (which seeks the nation’s top linebacker), and had one of the NFL Combine’s best linebacker 40 times. He’s considered one of the 2017 draft’s top five or so linebackers:
If a team is looking for a rock solid, run-stopping linebacker, McMillan is that player. At just under 6’2 and 240 pounds, McMillan is a classic middle who can come up and stuff the run. When McMillan squares up his shoulders and drives through the ball carrier, he never misses. He plays with good instincts, and when he’s in zone coverage, he knows how to read the quarterback’s eyes to make a break on the play.
After making a mark on the field in college, he’ll be a contributor for whichever team drafts him, but I’m also really looking forward to the moment when he’s picked and NFL fans realize there’s an incoming rookie who was named after a musician who debuted in the 1990s. And he might not be the NFL’s last of his namesake, with former four-star DT Raekwon Davis a rising sophomore at Alabama.
I say all that to say:
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