Namaste: Rams Defensive Tackle A’Shawn Robinson Reveals Health Changes

Getty A'Shawn Robinson (No. 94) celebrates with his former teammate Michael Brockers during a 2020 regular season game against the Arizona Cardinals. Robinson has gone from 330 to 300-pounds before the 2021 season, he revealed to reporters on June 2.

The Los Angeles Rams defensive line unit will now feature a vegan and yoga enthusiast in the form of a new-look A’Shawn Robinson.

Robinson first arrived to Southern California before the 2020 season via the Detroit Lions and was told that he needed to lose weight. Robinson arrived to the Rams at 330-pounds. But now, Robinson has cut his weight down to 300.

“It all started when I came here, they wanted me to lose some weight. I thought about how I played in Detroit and how big I was and how much better I would be if I leaned up some,” Robinson told reporters during a video conference call on June 2.

What were his health secrets that got him to lose 30-pounds? Robinson went away from unhealthy foods as one option and then rolled out the yoga mat.

“So I got my chef in place, I got my workout regimens in place. I started doing my Pilates and yoga, really just harnessing in my body, working on every bit of it for my recovery,” Robinson said.

Before the Weight Loss Journey

Even before the age of 10, Robinson was always considered too big to play football. Some, however, questioned if he was older than he looked.

In a 2015 article from al.com, Robinson’s mother Abigail had to resort to showing her son’s birth certificate before games to confirm he was the same age of the other boys. In 2016, he told Michael Rothstein of ESPN that at Alabama, he too received the ‘old man’ label because of his outside appearance. Rothstein additionally revealed in his story that Robinson was experiencing hair loss:

He has always looked older than he is. He has always heard it as well, both in college and even at the NFL combine, when he explained that he grew his beard because he started going bald when he got to college. So, he shaved his head and grew his beard.

Still, he said people would tell him he looked double his age.

“It’s funny, you know,” Robinson said. “They always joke around and call me ‘old man’ and stuff. But I just take it how it is.

“Some people have that problem, looking older than what they are.”

Robinson, though, clearly played like someone who didn’t care about the old man jokes. He instead terrorized opposing offenses and quarterbacks with the Crimson Tide, collecting 133 total tackles including 22 behind the line of scrimmage and snatching career 9.5 sacks in 39 games at Alabama. One quarterback he sacked 2.5 times in a single game: A future Dallas Cowboy named Dak Prescott in the 31-6 romp of Mississippi State.

Robinson entered the league at 6-foot-4, 312-pounds. Ultimately, he gained 18 pounds in the Motor City. Then, after signing a two-year, $17 million contract to help energize the defensive line, his early stay in L.A. got off to a shaky start due to coronavirus concerns. Robinson was one of the 2020 players who used the COVID-19 opt out arrangement, qualifying for the league’s medical opt-out. Robinson, eventually, wound up playing in eight games for the Rams but didn’t start. And after starting in all 16 regular games for the Lions in 2017, Robinson only started in 16 total games between 2018 to 2020.

Robinson’s Reasoning Behind Health Change

Robinson doesn’t want to let his teammates down, hence why he’s loaded up on vegetables and performing yoga stretches.

“I want to be the best for these guys. I’m not going to go out here and slack and let any of these guys down,” Robinson told reporters. “I don’t want to let nobody down on this team.”

He has a vote of confidence in Sebastian Joseph-Day, who will be lining up alongside him.

“A’Shawn is doing a great job,” Joseph-Day told reporters on June 1. “He’s transformed his body, lost weight, toned up, he’s locked in. He’s really locked in.”