James Laurinaitis will make his return home when the Buckeyes visit Minnesota Saturday.
The freshman linebacker spurned his hometown school in favor of Ohio State, leaving many to wonder how the Gophers could let one of the state’s top recruits slip away. So does Laurinaitis expect a rude welcome Saturday?
“Those guys were probably expecting me to come here, but Minnesota is a nice state, so there won’t be any boos,” Laurinaitis said.
Or maybe they know who his father is – and that the Road Warrior Animal will be in attendance. That’s right – Laurinaitis’ father, Joe, is the reigning WWE Tag Team champion and best known to a generation of wrestling fans as the partner of Hawk (the recently deceased Michael Hegstrand) in the “Legion of Doom.”
It is he who Buckeye fans can thank for the Hamel, Minn., product now donning the scarlet and gray. Ever since his father gave him a scarlet No. 45 Andy Katzenmoyer jersey, Laurinaitis knew where he wanted to go.
“My dad’s always been a big Buckeyes fan,” Laurinaitis said. “He was a fan of Spielman and Katzenmoyer, anybody with toughness.”
The only problem?
“My dad’s a big tattoo guy, so I was like, ‘Oh man. I can see that big Buckeye tattoo across his chest,'” Laurinaitis joked.
For conservative-minded coach Jim Tressel, the recruiting experience was, to say the least, different.
“Obviously, Joe is very knowledgeable about the competitive world, and he had a lot more experiences coast-to-coast than other parents you meet,” Tressel told The Detroit News. “A lot of times, you talk with someone about their accounting firm. He’s really an intriguing guy.”
While Tressel previously might not have known of the wrestling star, that definitely was not the case with his players.
“Growing up, yeah I remember his dad for sure, so we were excited when we heard James was coming,” senior linebacker A.J. Hawk said. “His dad will come in and talk with us. He’s a cool guy.”
For now, Laurinaitis might be known as the guy whose dad is the mohawked wrestler, but that could change next year if he steps into a starting role. Already this year, as a backup to senior linebacker Bobby Carpenter, Laurinaitis has seen the field in all seven games.
Of his two siblings, Laurinaitis said his father thinks he has the personality best suited to wrestle professionally. But for now, he’s going to stick with football. With a proud father who makes it to all the games behind him, Laurinaitis should succeed.
That is, as long as he does not ask himself: What would Dad do?
“He still thinks Woody Hayes shouldn’t have gotten in trouble,” Laurinaitis said. “He’s like, ‘Man, he did what he needed to do to stop a touchdown.'”
