Rookie Giants receiver Wan’Dale Robinson catches up with Post columnist Steve Serby to talk about his introduction to the NFL and Big Blue’s surprising start in his first Q&A.
Q: What drives you as an NFL player?
A: I have a tattoo right [behind the right ear], it’s “Mamba Mentality”: a constant quest to be the best version of yourself.
Q: Does this Giants team have a Mamba Mentality?
A: Shoot, I mean, I would say so. It starts with Dabs [coach Brian Daboll], and he’s just always wanting us to continue to get better and we can’t get complacent. He actually showed us a video of Kobe [Bryant] after the [NBA] Finals, whenever they [Lakers] were up 2-0. He wasn’t happy, but exactly what he said, “There is nothing to be happy about yet.” You haven’t won anything yet at the end of the day. Just like for us, we can be 5-1, we still can’t be happy ’cause the season’s not over.
Q: What was the reaction when Daboll showed the video during the week?
A: It hit spot on with everybody. He does a really good job of motivating us and not letting us get complacent with this game and even after a game and just keeping us hungry.
Q: What was it like for you the day Kobe perished?
A: I remember I was bowling. I was just like, “That can’t be real,” and then it was just kind of like everybody just sat there and we were just all in shock. We didn’t personally know him, but I’d almost gotten the chance before COVID to meet him. Adidas was hosting this event, QB Retreat at the Mamba Academy. We were all getting flown out there, and Kobe was actually gonna be there, and then COVID happened literally a month before we were all supposed to get flown out. I was really sick whenever he passed, but I still got the sweatshirt I’ll never get rid of.
Q: Why do you believe you can make an impact in your rookie season?
A: The coaches, they believe in me … but at the end of the day I believe in myself. It’s the same game I’ve been playing since I was 5 years old. Just go out there, get the ball and make plays, that’s just kind of how I’ve always looked at it.
Q: You see myself as the … blank … player on the field.
A: Best.
Q: What is the most unfair criticism or the criticism that bothered you most?
A: Really for the most part, all the criticism I’ve ever gotten is I’m too small [5-foot-8]. That’s never been anything different since I was probably 10, 11 years old. At this point, I just kind of brush it off and it just kind of goes in through one ear and out the other.
Q: Do you ever wish you were bigger?
A: I mean, yeah definitely. There’s always what-ifs and what-if that, but God made me this way, and God gave me the abilities that I have, and I gotta do the most with ’em out of what I got.
Q: Why would you like being viewed as an inspiration to short people and athletes?
A: It doesn’t matter how big you are, at the end of the day, as long as you can make plays on the football field, you can really accomplish whatever you want.
Q: How tall is fast?
A: (Smile) That’s my guy Chris Vaughn right there. Me and Rondale [Moore, Cardinals receiver], that was kind of our thing coming out of high school. That was our trainer.
Q: Describe your on-field mentality.
A: Just the confidence that I always feel I’m the best, and I can do whatever I feel like I need to do out there on the football field, just always believing in myself. My dad instilled that in me when I was 5 years old and I’ve never tried to change the mindset, and that mindset’s gotten me to where I am today.
Q: So when you’re on the field you think you’re the biggest guy on the field?
A: Not necessarily the biggest. I think at the end of the day, I don’t think anybody can stop me. I don’t really talk or anything like that to any other players out there on the field like to let them know or anything, but I just have that kind of confidence about myself and just keep it to myself and just keep going.
Q: Describe Saquon Barkley.
A: That boy’s a dawg (laugh). I don’t really know what’s a better compliment than that. But some of the things that he does out there on the football field, I’m just kind of like, “Wow.” Like even that play where he got down [at the Ravens 2], it was just like, “You’re better than me ’cause I woulda scored after I did that move on somebody (laugh).”
Q: But the instruction from the sideline. You woulda gotten down.
A: Maybe (laugh). That just shows he’s selfless, and he’s gonna do whatever he has to do for the team. He fights through a lot of pain.
Q: What have you learned about Daniel Jones?
A: He’s tough. I never realized how tough he was until I got here and just seeing all the stuff that he had to go through, and seeing some of the criticism and stuff like that he’s received and just to continue to see him battle and just lead our football team, it’s just been a really great thing to see.
Q: How good of a leader is he?
A: As good as I’ve been around. He’s just doing everything right.
Q: Describe Kayvon Thibodeaux.
A: Goofy, that’s what Kayvon is. He’s not afraid to be himself, and he’s always gonna be himself. He’s kind of a chameleon, can always kind of fit in with all kind of groups.
Q: And on the field?
A: He has that first step and gets that pressure on the quarterback. I know sacks are what everybody wants to talk about, but at the end of the day if you’re affecting the quarterback and getting him to move off the spot, that’s all that really matters.
Q: Evan Neal.
A: Evan’s doing his thing as well. Obviously people were trying to harp on Evan just for some early things, but I feel like ever since then he’s just locked in and been everything that he’s had to be and he’s just gonna continue to get better I feel like too.
Q: Describe playing on the big New York stage under the bright lights.
A: This is what you look for as a kid. You want to be in one of the big markets, you want to play in those big-time games. I love it. I’m just gonna try and take it all in and just take each and every game in just like it was my first.
Q: How frustrating was it missing the first five games with a knee problem?
A: Very frustrating, especially somebody that’s never missed more than two games in a football season. It was really, really hard, especially after just a couple of weeks, and I’m just feeling like I just want to be out there, and just kind of having some down days and just feeling like, hey, I just don’t think I’m getting better or anything like that, but just having to trust the process and realize that it’s a long season and you can still come back and you can have an impact.
Q: What is it about this offense that you like?
A: Just the creativity allows me to do a lot of different things.
Q: Who are the most exciting players in the NFL?
A: I like watching obviously Tyreek Hill, Cooper Kupp, Stefon Diggs, Davante Adams, Justin Jefferson. … Really, just the list kind of goes down. Really any game that I can kind of get to watch I always want to watch ’cause there’s probably somebody that I would like watching and just seeing what they do.
Q: You on Instagram: “People love to hate, rather go blind than see me winnin.”
A: From where I’m from [Frankfort, Ky.], everybody doesn’t like to see you win. I feel like there’s a lot of people that whenever I got to this position, and even at that point in college in that position, a lot of people hated to see me there.
Q: Why?
A: I just think that’s kind of how the world is.
Q: “Went through some tragedies, I made it out to make it right.”
A: Another song lyric caption. Me and my dad and my mom, we went through some things when I was young, and that was my always my goal to make it out and make a name for the family.
Q: “Bet on yourself.”
A: I’m pretty sure that was a tweet from me around time I was deciding I was leaving school [Kentucky] or not. A lot of people were trying to tell me to come back and tell me to leave, and at the end of the day, I just felt like I did enough and I was ready for the next level and ready to take care of my family.
Q: “Got no fear in me.”
A: Can’t have no fear. Especially whenever you’re out there on the football field.
Q: “I was raised to never fold when things get tough.”
A: I’ve been through some tough things, and Mom’s always, “You gotta keep your head up, gotta keep going.”
Q: What is the biggest adversity you had to overcome?
A: I’d definitely say my dad [Dale Robinson] going to prison [for distributing cocaine] when I was a young kid and just being with my single mom, and just being us two for almost 10 years.
Q: What was the low point?
A: Mom [Victoria Davis] deals with MS, so there was times she couldn’t work. Obviously, a mom and her son, she has to provide for her son and she’s obviously struggling a little bit, so just seeing her go through those times and just not always being able to give me everything that I wanted, but doing whatever she could to try to get me whatever I wanted … as much of what I wanted [as] she could get.
Q: How is she doing now?
A: She’s doing all right now. I can help take care of her a little bit and make sure that she’s always taken care, and I can make sure I can see her whenever I want now, just having her flown up here.
Q: What kind of truck did you get your father?
A: A Yukon Denali. Before he was eventually locked up when I was a kid, that was what we always drove around in, he had a white one. It just kind of takes him back and allows my little sister to just be able to have some of the experiences that I had in the short amount of time that I had with him when I was that young.
Q: Your little sister Eliza is how old?
A: 2.
Q: What’s it like having a 2-year-old sister?
A: (Smile) I love it. At first I was just kind of like, “This is kind of weird,” but when she came, it was one of the biggest blessings that I’ve ever had. I love her to death. That’s kind of like my little parenting before parenting (smile). She’s a full bundle of energy, and just always smiling. … She can always call Bubba, that’s what she calls me (laugh).
Q: You are proud of yourself because … blank.
A: I’m a big brother.
Q: What was the biggest lesson your father taught you?
A: It’s all right to be different. You don’t have to follow down the same path as other people. For me, where I come from, everybody just kind of wants to follow everybody and do the same things. A lot of people go down the wrong route. He’s just always preaching on me it’s all right to be different, at the end of the day you have a dream and you have to be a little different to accomplish that dream. Just growing up and all throughout high school, just knowing I can’t do the same things as everybody. You always have to kind of make some kind of sacrifice.
Q: There was a time when you were angry at him.
A: Whenever I was younger and I really figured out what he did and just why he was gone and stuff like that, I was obviously angry, and then as I got older, I just came to realize at the end of the day he was really just trying to provide for me, and he was providing for me at that point in time. If you asked him, I got anything and everything I wanted. … I just couldn’t stay mad forever.
Q: Are you proud of your dad now?
A: It’s tough for anybody. … You’re incarcerated for what, almost 10 years, you come home and you’re completely trying to change your life around, and at first, nobody really wants to give you a chance. Then you just start something from your garage and now you own two gyms [Guru Fitness] of your own. Just to see everything that he’s done. Even if nobody believed in him, he just kept pushing. So that just kind of gave me no excuse to why I couldn’t keep going with whatever I do.
Q: Other than your dad being in prison, what’s the toughest thing you’ve been through?
A: At one point when I was in like middle school, high school, there was just kind of a rack of deaths in my family. … My grandfather passed away, my aunt passed away, my other grandfather passed away, my cousin passed away. All this is within like three, four years.
Q: Who is Pepaw?
A: He passed away when I was in college. That was my dad’s dad. If you go back home and you see my family, it’s a lot of athletes. Luckily I was the one that was blessed enough to really not make any mistakes before being able to get to this point. He’s really the one that started the bloodline of everything that we have in our family.
Q: If you could go one-on-one with any defender in NFL history, who would it be?
A: Deion Sanders. That’s arguably the best player to ever play so why not? You want to go against the best.
Q: If you could pick the brain of any receiver or running back in NFL history?
A: Probably Jerry Rice. That’s arguably one of the GOATs as well. Just really figuring what he did, obviously he wasn’t the fastest guy, and just how he just managed to continue to always get open, and what he did to always change stuff up, so just kind of ask him some questions like that.
Q: What did you dress up as on Halloween?
A: I don’t know what I’m gonna be this year, but I think my best one was probably when I was Michael Jackson.
Q: What did you sing in training camp?
A: I sang a Michael Jackson song.
Q: How’d you do?
A: I didn’t do good. I got booed.
Q: Have you been to the Kentucky Derby?
A: I actually went this past year.
Q: What was that like?
A: Amazing. I will not miss another one (laugh).
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Kobe Bryant, Reggie Bush, Drake.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “Black Panther.”
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Denzel [Washington].
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Queen Latifa.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Soul food.
Q: After you scored your first NFL touchdown last week, did you call home?
A: My mom and dad were actually here [MetLife Stadium]. My mom has my touchdown ball back home in Kentucky with her. That was pretty cool to have those two here for the game.
Q: What was it like when you saw them after the game?
A: It was just crazy. For both of them, they’ve known that this had been my dream since I was 5, and for my dad to put me to bed watching NFL Network to actually having the moment of scoring a touchdown, it was pretty surreal, and we just kind of hugged for a little bit, and just kind of had a little moment there.
Q: What would you want Giants fans to say about you 10 years from now?
A: That he was the best. I don’t think anybody wants to walk out of this and not say that they were the best, and say that they gave it their all.
