When people think about their favorite football players, more often than not, that player is the quarterback or a skill position guy. However, the special teams players never seem to get the love and attention they sometimes deserve. But Illini punter Hugh Robertson will undoubtedly become a fan favorite for Illinois fans.
Robertson, a 30-year-old from Melbourne, Australia spoke for 12 minutes about a multitude of topics. The sophomore was joyfully talking about his experience with “Aussie Rules Football,” some of the NFL punters he admires, the cuisine differences and exotic animals. He also talked about how the transition was easier because there was no language barrier.
“The English language makes the transition a little easier,” Robertson said. “Just culturally, it’s such a different environment to be around. I’ve been here for three years now, so I’ve got a bit of the lingo down. It’s something I just sort of had to pick up on the way at first.”
Robertson joked about his teammates not getting his sense of humor, as he laughed about it. Robertson talked about growing up in Australia, playing football with his father and how he used to kick [punt] around the street with him.
“It set up my opportunity to be here, I’ve been kicking an Australian football since I was two,” Robertson said. “Dad and I would be kicking it in the street and it would go over the fence, but he wasn’t a fan of running that much, and he got to medium pace walking when I’d try to punt it to him on the run.”
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Robertson spoke candidly about some of the punters he watches, especially some of the Australian players who have made a name for themselves in the NFL. He talked about the academy program they were apart of back in their home country.
“Mitch Wishnowsky on the 49ers and Michael Dickson on the Seahawks, we all came from the same program in Australia,” Robertson said. “When I first joined ProKick, I was like ‘I don’t believe in this, I don’t know what it is.’ I had to learn about it, I thought it was a hoax, to be honest. But, here I am.”
Robertson added that it was then that he realized he wanted to play at a high level, but it was not working out in Australian football, and the experience of going to America was great.
“It was an experience to go to America, in education as well, so all those things combined give a lot of Australian players a second chance to play a sport professionally using those skills,” Robertson said. “I’ve always talked about living in another country and then the rest is sort of history, a life changing thing.”
After the football discussion, Robertson dug into talking about food, and how vastly different it is here versus Australia.
“Americans love their fried food, I came in here about 15% body fat, now I think I’m running around 25%, so I like to blame that on America, it makes me feel better,” Robertson said. “I’ll tell you what, Italian beef sandwiches are fantastic, they are unbelievable, and I had my first one in Chicago, and it was at Johnny’s, a mom-and-pop shop.”
Robertson was pleased to discuss food, calling himself a foodie.
“I can chew your ear off for a while about that,” Robertson said. “My go to is Vietnamese food, with Australia being close to Southeast Asia, we have a large influence of Vietnamese food.”
Robertson said his favorite Vietnamese food in the Champaign-Urbana area are Xinh Xinh cafe and Pho Noodle Station, just for reference. However, he did say he’s not big into Raising Cane’s, (sorry to the Caniacs out there.)
“I’m not the first one on scene at the fried chicken place with the chips, Raising Cane’s,” Robertson said. “It’s good, but I don’t frequent it.”
Robertson finished by showing photos of him and his girlfriend visiting some areas in Australia, getting to hangout with kangaroos, koalas and many other exotic animals that are unlikely to be found in America.
For Illini fans, Robertson may be a much different personality than most football players, but when you get to know him, he’s quite the entertaining guy to be around, and his candidness about food should fit right in with the students, at least the Chicago natives.
@arrosen76
