NFL Draft prospect A’Shawn Robinson has always looked like a 47-year-old uncle

This season, Alabama defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson will be an NFL rookie. He will not look like an NFL rookie.

Something about Robinson’s bald head, huge beard, wrinkled brow, permanently angry face and, oh yeah, 307 pounds make him look less like a precocious NFL newbie and more like somebody who’s been working security since retiring from the league in 1998. But he is, in fact, 21 years old. I promise.

NFL fans are just finding out about it, but the gap between Robinson’s apparent age and his actual age is nothing new.

When Robinson played youth football, everybody assumed he was too old to play.

Referees wouldn’t let [Robinson] on the field.“My mom came raising hell,” A’Shawn said with a grin. “I couldn’t play because I was too big and they had to see my birth certificate.”

It’s hard to blame opposing coaches. Robinson always looked years older than his March 21, 1995 birth date. Either his mom or a coach would have to bring that birth certificate to every game growing up because the challenges were so frequent.

As a senior in high school, Robinson was a 6’5, 302-pounder. At the time, recruiting services projected him as a offensive tackle, with the 247Sports Composite ranking him as the second-best tackle in the country. Again, people thought he was too old to be a high schooler.

“When I first saw him,” [Phil Young, who coached Robinson as a senior at Arlington Heights High School] said, “I thought he was a coach... You don’t see high school guys like that. Ever.“When Robinson got to college, he played like he’d been there for years. He led Alabama in sacks as a true freshman, and was the only freshman, true or redshirt, to be named the team’s Player of the Week, something he did three times.

Even Robinson’s beastly Alabama teammates were a little bit scared of him.

How do teammates respond when the up-sized Robinson calls someone on the carpet behind closed, locker room doors?“They listen,” Ragland said, smiling. “That’s a lot of guy over there.”

As a junior, Robinson was the rock of a defensive line that led the nation in rushing defense and won the national title. At a College Football Playoff media event, he was asked about his deceivingly old appearance:

I will say based on his film, Robinson probably deserves to go in the top half of the first round or higher.Even though he looks like somebody’s uncle, Robinson still has a ton of untapped potential. In the right system with the right coaching he just may end up being a Fletcher Cox-of-2015 type player one day in the not too distant future. For me, the risk that he wouldn’t is one I’d be willing to take.

Check out the rest of White’s scouting report of Robinson here.