After finding his jerseys, Arlington Heights retires A’Shawn Robinson’s numbers
The hardest part of retiring A’Shawn Robinson’s number was not getting the Super Bowl champion defensive tackle back to Arlington Heights, but actually just finding his old Yellow Jackets jersey.
For years Arlington Heights’ boys basketball coach Larry Petite wanted to retire Robinson’s number, but the logistics of all of this is not as easy as a phone call, email or text.
Last week, Petite and Heights lined up the time and date of a retirement ceremony. By that point, they had finally located his football jersey.
Robinson last played at Arlington Heights in football in 2013, and Heights is currently undergoing construction projects, meaning a lot of items are stuffed in boxes, which are stuffed on shelves or crammed in packed closets.
By comparison, locating Robinson was the easy part. He comes back to Fort Worth to see his family and friends, and he just often does it without alerting anyone. But he stays in touch with a lot of Heights people.
On Thursday afternoon, before a select group of current Heights students, Heights cheerleaders, and Heights band members, Robinson made it back to see his jersey retired.
His was the rare double. Heights retired Robinson’s number in football and basketball.
It was the first time in Arlington Heights’ history that the school has retired a jersey in any sport.
The school produced two banners, one for the No. 42 he wore in basketball and another for the No. 11 he wore in football.
“No, I certainly never expected this,” Robinson said.
Also in attendance were his mother, Abigail Robinson, his grandmother and a handful of his old high school buddies, former teammates, teachers and principals.
They all say, “I knew A’Shawn when,” but the friendships he formed at Heights are genuine, and the reaction he had with everyone was sincere.
I think I was the only member of the media in attendance, so it wasn’t as if Robinson was showing off for the cameras. For the event he wore a T-shirt and jeans.
No agent or handler was here to arrange anything.
Nothing here was faked, or staged. These are all old friends participating in a reunion, and just happy to see one another.
They were all enjoying Robinson’s success.
They were more happy to see a Heights’ grad who has moved on and doing well in life.
Teachers told stories. Coaches told stories.
“The first day of practice, I come out and I see this guy wearing red cleats. We were Yellow Jackets. I’m like, ‘Who is this guy?” said Vince Berrones, who was the quarterback at Heights when Robinson was there. “Little did I know it’d be the best athlete I ever played with.”
Old teammates talked about the time Robinson actually attended All Saints, which lasted for about a week, before he decided to come back to Heights.
When you grow up with the guy who “made it big,” everyone has a story.
The endearing element to Thursday’s event was that as big as Robinson is, both physically and in terms of fame, he didn’t big-time this event.
He took pictures with anyone who wanted one, and signed anything that needed a signature. Everyone got his time.
The jersey retirement is not necessarily a culmination of a great last 12 months for Robinson, but a continuation of it.
Considering how mostly obscure his first four NFL seasons were, all with the Detroit Lions, all of his recent success was not expected.
Leaving the Detroit after the 2019 season to sign as a free agent with Los Angeles was the best decision he could have made, as he’s finally being recognized as a top defensive lineman.
His performance in the Rams’ Super Bowl win over the Cincinnati Bengals was so good that NBC color analyst Cris Collinsworth could not find find enough words to commend Robinson.
“It took me leaving Detroit,” he said. “Getting that respect in Detroit is hard because you’re not winning.”
The Lions played in one playoff game in his time there.
Robinson is 26, looks good, and is enjoying his offseason, which has already included a trip to the Bahamas.
And a jersey retirement, too. Actually, make that two.
This story was originally published March 4, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
