“They are getting the best underdog they ever drafted” proclaimed Nate Hobbs, a day after the Raiders took him with the 167th pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
As a toddler, Hobbs wore a black Tim Brown Raiders jersey. In fact, his favorite family photo is him in the #81, getting a kiss on the cheek from his mom. Perhaps, it was his destiny to wear the Silver and Black. But as he said, he’s an “underdog”, and being overlooked throughout your football life means it wasn’t easy getting to this point.
The young defensive back from Louisville, Kentucky is comfortable flying under the radar. He’s used to proving people wrong. He was a three-star recruit out of high school and 232 corner backs nationwide were ranked better than him by 247Sports.
But that never slowed down his plans to excel in college and get into the NFL. If anything, it fueled him. Perhaps, embracing the underdog label brings out his ability to perform at a high level. He plays every snap like it’s the most important play of the game. He’s tough as nails and never eases up. In many ways, watching Hobbs cover an opposing receiver feels like you’re watching the violent, no-nonsense Oakland Raiders of the 1970s.
Where’d he get his toughness from? The toughest person he knows: his mother, Denise. Despite an annual income of $25,000, she did everything for her family to survive. Even when tragedy struck and his father passed away unexpectedly due to cardiac arrest, she carried on with life and never missed a beat. Tough. And with that tragedy, a 12-year-old Nate Hobbs became the man of the house, and just like that his childhood was over.