Big hand up
Collin Clay’s 6-foot10 father has helped put him on the right path to becoming a football star.
WARR ACRES — Collin Clay and his older brother stepped out of the airport terminal to a big, handdrawn welcome sign held by unfamiliar people.
A giant man stood ready to offer a hug. With each step, Clay was more and more in awe of his father’s stature.
“I’m trying not to break my neck looking at him,” Collin said.
Big Rob, or Rob Clay, certainly lived up to his stage name. Boy, was he big.
At 6-foot-10, Rob has the size that once attracted NFL teams despite not playing college football. He now travels the country spreading messages of hope as a Christian rapper and minister.
But his two oldest sons were seeing him for the first time in person five years ago, not just speaking on the phone. Growing up in Kannapolis, North Carolina, they had heard he was big, but didn’t truly believe it to be true.
This was proof. “We teared up,” Collin said.
The Clay family became whole as sons reunited with their father. A mountain of a man changed Collin, a scrawny kid strapped with asthma who was flirting with the wrong path, into something special.
At that time, there was little belief that Collin would become the football player he is now, a 6-foot-5, 255-pound defensive end committed to Arkansas who led Putnam City High School against rival Putnam City West on Thursday night.
But the unification of father and son pushed Collin.
“Just giving me that opportunity to be what I wanted to be and what I needed to be to them,” Rob said.
Rob still had to forge a bond after a 13-year absence.
And that started with an all-nighter of NBA 2K, complete with father and son trash talking. Thirteen years apart was quickly becoming an afterthought.
“It was a great feeling,” Rob said. “I knew that relationship was going to take time to build. I
prayed about it a lot. I wanted that relationship. I wanted it to be there.”
Rob and Jenine Verdalette got married and had a son together. When she was pregnant again with Collin, they broke up and moved apart.
Rob moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where he had at one point been in the Jaguars’ training camp and had a budding music career. Verdalette went to North Carolina, where she and her two sons would live with her mom.
Rob and Collin first spoke when he was 4 or 5 years old, but not in person. Life decisions kept them apart.
But that would change with that initial visit five years ago. A few days into it, Verdalette suggested her sons stay. She later moved to OKC.
Rob had his shot at redemption, a chance to help his sons.
He first needed to get Collin off the battered grass of Capps Middle School’s football field as he desperately searched for air.
Whether it was the first play or 60th that day did not matter. It was becoming a ritual for 13-year-old Collin to be bent over or on the ground gasping from asthma.
Others believed asthma was zapping any hope of playing football in the future. Collin grew frustrated and his temper sometimes took over.
Rob started roaming the sideline every day with inhaler and breathing treatment handy. His son was not going to lose this battle.
Collin would do a treatment before and sometimes during each practice or game, his father always there to help.
They would have deep conversations about the future late at night.
“Even when my temper got bad, he would check me,” Collin said. “I wasn’t used to it. The more he started sitting down and talking to me telling me the things that could happen in this world I started paying attention to it.”
By his freshman season, Collin was turning into a force on the football field. He earned varsity playing time. His temper was under control. So was his asthma.
As a sophomore, SMU became the first Division I school to offer a scholarship. Collin immediately shared the news with Rob.
“It was like Christmas Day to the 100th power,” Rob said. “I told him that’s the first of many. Just get ready for it because he deserved it.”
Collin earned offers from all over the country. Baylor, Oregon, Oklahoma State, North Carolina. But Arkansas and Chad Morris, who offered while leading SMU, won over Collin.
A better future was created that day at the airport.
“If I just came for the summer and I went back, I’d probably be like I was back then with my temper and stuff,” Clay said. “Leadership-wise, I probably wouldn’t be the same as I am now.”
And the Clay family has expanded. There are now four sons and a daughter. Big Rob is spreading more love.
“I call all of my sons, ‘Champ,’” Rob said.
“I want them to know that’s what they are. That has really nothing to do with sports. You are a winner in whatever in life you choose to do or be.”