Behind the Facemask: Marcus Robinson
October 30, 2011
CORAL GABLES, Fla.–They are stories of perseverance. Stories about growing up, becoming men and being a part of a family. One-by-one, we hear from them. These are the Miami Hurricanes…
Marcus Robinson | Defensive Line | Senior | Homestead, Fla.
I’m a Miami Hurricane because I grew up watching this university and I always wanted to come and play here. It was my dream from my childhood. I love the tradition and brotherhood here.
When those NFL guys come back and you’re in there working out alongside them, it is special. If they see something wrong and they correct you, it’s very touching for someone like that to take the time. This is a special place. A brotherhood.
The defensive line is the Dog Pound. I feel like the defensive line controls the whole game for the defensive backs and the linebackers because if you don’t have a good defensive line your linebackers won’t be much and your secondary won’t be much. I feel like it’s a big part for the other parts of the defense.
I was raised in a Goulds, Fla., in a place that everyone called Chocolate City. The reason they called it Chocolate City was because it was a community for the blacks. I was raised there with seven of my brothers and five of my sisters. I have two younger twin brothers, one younger brother and one younger sister. Some people think we’re triplets because we all look alike.
What most people don’t know about me is that I’m a very good person and a very caring person.
The Golden Era is going to be a very good era. It’s a whole different atmosphere, different coaching and it isn’t just about playing football. He came to help us mature into young men and wants to help you off the field more so than on the field. He’s a real genuine person.
The legacy I want to leave here is when people ask about me, all I want them to say is “he played hard on every play and he gave it everything he had.”
When I was six years old, I had a very bad temper. I had no friends; I couldn’t be around my brothers because if I would lose at something all I wanted to do was fight. I spent a lot of days in what my parents called “time-out”—isolated. Going into ninth grade, I was still fighting and that got me kicked out of South Ridge and I ended up having to move to Homestead and go to Homestead Senior High and played there. I moved in with one of my older brothers. Time changes things, and as I grew up, I mellowed out.
If I wasn’t playing football, most likely I would be working on somebody’s 9-5. I probably would have thought about college, but I wouldn’t have been into it like I am now.
When I played football as a kid, I pretended to be Ray Lewis. I wanted to emulate his game. I’d watch him and it seemed like all he wanted to do was hit people hard and make faces. I wanted to make people feel me on the field. When he came to speak to the team, it was an unbelievable experience. It was unreal and I felt like I had stepped out of my body. I wasn’t even a player anymore. I turned into another dude; I was a kid all over again. To see your role model come and speak and talk about the things he went through really touched me.
The song on my iPod that no one would believe is a lot of old school stuff. I like to listen to old school music before games. It sends me to another place.
My mom. Wow, I can’t talk about her without getting teary-eyed. She means so much to me and I’ve watched her and she always gave it her all every day. She was always a hard worker and she did everything she could to support us each and every day. She never wanted us to see her down. She made sure that all of us kids knew to give it our all every day, no matter what.
I’m very close to my father. We became close because all of the time I spent in “time out” he was there. Everyone would go on a nice trip for the weekend and he, in a way, was punished with me because he couldn’t go since I had to stay home. We have a real tight bond. He’s my dad, but more like a big brother to me. I can go and talk to him about anything. He was the first one to tell me to play football so that I could take my anger out on the field.
My hidden talent is basketball. I can play and I love to play. I love watching Kobe Bryant play.
I started playing football when I was eight or nine years old. I loved it because I could hit people and not get in trouble for it. Well, I had to learn when to hit people. I remember when I was younger this dude put on his pads and I put on my pads and I just ran into him. I didn’t know I had to wait on the whistle. So the coaches had to explain to me to wait on the whistle, to play between the whistles and that’s when I really started learning the game. I learned a lot from that experience.
The best advice I ever got from someone was my high school coach. He always told me not to waste any time. He said that I had the ability to get out of the projects, but not to waste it all. I was still going through a phase in high school where I did not believe in myself, in my talent or in my coaches. I was still fighting and getting into trouble. He told me all of that was just wasting my time and getting in the way of me going to college and getting a degree.
If I could possess a superpower, it would be the ability to fly. I just want to fly all over the world and see things that I’ve never seen before.
What keeps me motivated every day is knowing that my parents can walk around and be proud of me. They were always told that I would never amount to anything. I see them every day and they’re so proud that I play for the University of Miami and that I’m getting my college education. That makes me want to work harder. My mom is probably the loudest person in the stands on game day.
Running through the smoke is a reminder of how blessed I am.
