DUCE ROBINSON EARNED his first college football scholarship offer before he even knew how to buckle shoulder pads.
Never having played tackle football, he attended a 7-on-7 tournament prior to his freshman year at Pinnacle (Arizona) High School. Despite his inexperience, his natural ability and massive size (6-foot-4, 200 pounds as a 14-year-old) gave Arizona State coaches all they needed to see to give him an opportunity to play football at the next level.
At that time, Robinson already had a scholarship offer to play baseball at perennial power Arizona.
In the four years since, Robinson has grown to 6-foot-6, 235 pounds and has seen his offer list expand at a similar clip. Not only is he the No. 1 tight end in the class of 2023, he’s a top-100 MLB draft prospect with the potential of earning a seven-figure bonus in July’s draft. He’s only the fifth person to ever play in the Under Armour All-America Game in both football and baseball.
Add it all up and Robinson is the most intriguing college football recruit in the country. He committed to USC last week but has been compared to Aaron Judge by an MLB bench coach. Of course, USC’s football coach, Lincoln Riley, was at Oklahoma when Kyler Murray was a top-10 MLB draft pick but played another season with the Sooners and emerged as a Heisman winner and top overall NFL pick en route to a nine-figure contract with the Arizona Cardinals.
For Robinson, playing two sports is all he has ever known. Beyond Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson proving two-sport stardom is possible, there’s a comp that hits much closer to home. His dad, Dominic, played wide receiver at Florida State under Bobby Bowden starting in 2001 and also balanced baseball under legendary coach Mike Martin. It’s a big reason why Duce Robinson isn’t ready to answer the “Football or baseball?” question just yet.
“He was my inspiration, and you always hear stories about what your parents did, especially when you’re young,” Robinson said. “But when you’re a young kid playing catch, running routes or swinging a bat with him, you hear the stories and think, ‘I could do that and I could do that better than him.’ So my goal since I can remember was to follow in his footsteps and hopefully be better than he was.”
As a result, the question that emerged with that initial 7-on-7 tourney continues to persist for Robinson. Football or baseball? MLB draft or two-sport collegiate stardom? Judge or Murray?
AS THE NO. 40 football recruit in the country, Robinson has a rare combination of size, speed and an ability to reel in passes that make him a matchup nightmare on any level. Over the past two seasons, he had 144 receptions for 2,586 yards and 22 touchdowns. He broke Pinnacle’s single-season records for catches (84) and receiving yards (1,614) in 2022.
He landed offers from some of the top programs in the game — back-to-back national champion Georgia, Texas, Alabama and Oregon among them — but on March 30 committed to USC to play under one of the best offensive minds in the country in Riley.
The two of them had built a connection dating back to when Riley was Oklahoma’s coach. Not only did Robinson feel comfortable with him, his staff and the Trojans’ offense, but he knew Riley had been in this situation before with a player who wanted to pursue both football and baseball.
“He had Kyler Murray and it was recently,” Robinson said. “Coach Riley has done this before with a guy at a super high level and he’s all-in on it. He knows what works, what doesn’t work and it was probably harder to balance it with a quarterback, because it’s such a unique position.”
Murray was the first player to play in the Under Armour All-America Game in both baseball and football in 2014. Since then, four other people have accomplished the feat: Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown, Kansas City Chiefs receiver Jerrion Ealy, Samford outfielder Maurice Hampton Jr. and Robinson.
Robinson plans on arriving at USC in June, moving in, participating in summer workouts and preparing for his freshman season.
A few years ago, he and his mother met Murray on a recruiting visit at Oklahoma. They sat down with the first person to be a first-round pick in both the MLB and NFL drafts for 20 to 30 minutes, talking about what it was like to play both sports. And how attainable it was with a coach like Riley.
ROBINSON’S FAMILY HAS heard of him being compared to New York Yankees outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, who signed professionally out of high school in 2007. Texas Rangers bench coach Donnie Ecker, who has worked with and mentored Robinson over the past few years, compared him to another former MVP.
“Aaron Judge is maybe the only other guy we can comp to have the efficiency of Duce’s bat path and his plate discipline,” Ecker said. “And to know that he’s just a baby when it comes to what he’s going to grow into. I think Aaron Judge is the closest comp I have at this age.”
ESPN baseball analyst Kiley McDaniel has Robinson, listed as an outfielder, as the No. 84 draft prospect this summer. He is described as still being raw, but scouts believe his rare physical tools, which can’t be taught, will help him succeed in the sport.
Whether Robinson is chosen in the first round, fifth round or much later in the MLB draft depends on a variety of factors — how he performs this spring, what his contract demands are, whether teams believe he wants to go to college and more. Robinson’s options and the draft’s financial slotting system make projecting his status with any certainty this early extremely difficult.
He wants to prove to MLB scouts that his potential is worth allocating a high draft pick. Major league teams want him to get reps on the baseball field at their level, and Robinson plans on continuing his already stringent workout regimen, practicing his technique, participating in the MLB combine and working out with teams privately.
Most baseball players selected in the draft will spend three to five years in a minor league system, climbing the ranks to hopefully one day make The Show.
“We’re just trying to get ready for the draft right now. We’re ready for everything and hopefully I get drafted highly,” Robinson said. “And then the goal from there would be to play college football and hopefully be able to sign a professional baseball contract so I could play both that way.”
While it isn’t likely, there is a scenario in which no MLB team selects him in the draft, or he could be a late selection. If that situation plays out, the family believes they have the leverage because of Robinson’s commitment to USC. Playing three years of football and baseball for the Trojans could set him up for success for the future if he can continue to develop his talents.
THE NCAA ALLOWS student-athletes to play college football after being drafted by a major league organization. If he signs a contract with a professional baseball team, he won’t have college eligibility in baseball, which is fine with Robinson as long as he has his shot at an MLB contract.
College football is already a full-time job for athletes trying to manage their schedules, classes, workouts and team obligations. Adding in the commitment of being a professional athlete in another sport is a challenge Robinson welcomes.
“The first couple years in the minor leagues, they’re super flexible with those guys, where the major leagues it usually leaks into football season a little bit,” Robinson said. “But, baseball would be in the summer and then football is during the fall. So, the plan right now is to continue to play football for as long as possible and baseball for as long as possible.”
Robinson’s mother, Mary Beth, swam competitively at Florida. Dominic was a highly touted prospect coming out of high school in the same recruiting class as Matt Leinart and Larry Fitzgerald. He was a two-sport athlete, playing both football and baseball his freshman year. Under Bowden, he moved from defensive back to wide receiver, where he recorded 680 receiving yards and two touchdowns from 2002 to ’04. Once his college career was over, he signed with the then-St. Louis Rams after the 2005 NFL draft.
Robinson says he believes he, too, can play both sports for as long as his body is willing to let him. He doesn’t foresee needing to decide between the two as long as someone will let him play both at the highest levels.
Dominic remembers the pressure he felt when he was going through the recruiting process, playing football at the highest level and balancing baseball as well. He said he hasn’t put any pressure on his son to recreate his own career, encouraging him to experience everything for himself, make his own decisions and forge his own path.
“He’s super driven, he’s goal-oriented and his goal was to be a professional sports player,” Dominic said. “Going to college for a sport was one of the steps on that path, but he knows what it takes to get to what his ultimate goal is.”
AT AN EARLY age, Duce stood a head above his peers and was among the fastest kids, whether it was at recess or on a field. Dominic said jokingly that his son had biceps before he could even walk.
The Robinsons lived in Dallas, but Dominic worked as an assistant football coach at the University of West Georgia, so he would travel to and from Texas, which meant he would begrudgingly miss some important events for Duce and his younger brother, Dyson.
One moment that especially stuck out in Dominic’s mind was when 5-year-old Duce told him he made the McKinney Little League All-Star team, which was composted mostly of 7-year-olds. Dominic broke down in tears not just because he wasn’t present for the accomplishment, but because he knew at that moment his son was special.
“We were certainly not expecting him to become one of the best athletes in the country, but we knew that he had that level of engagement,” the father said.
Dominic worked in college athletics for most of Duce’s childhood. The family moved to Des Moines, Iowa, when he took an assistant coaching job at Drake University in 2014. He left college athletics to start 3D Performance, a training facility and program that works with athletes at all levels in baseball, then moved the family to Phoenix in 2016.
There is where Dominic met then-Arizona baseball coach Jay Johnson. Johnson had offered scholarships to a few of Dominic’s other 3D players, but watching Duce’s skills and size as an eighth-grade outfielder playing alongside high school upperclassmen convinced him to offer Duce his first scholarship.
Dominic built a connection with Ecker, the Rangers’ bench coach, through mutual connections five years ago. Ecker, 37, has since become a big brother of sorts to Duce, working with his on-field mechanics and guiding him through the mental side of the game. Despite being around major league players his whole life, he says Duce already thinks and works like a major leaguer.
“I’m around 18-to-35-year-old baseball players every day, and I’m working with Duce at 7:30 p.m. in Surprise, Arizona, in a cage when it’s raining outside,” Ecker said. “After he’s had school, weights, he drove an hour to get there and I look in his eyes. I just know this person is different and he’s not someone I’m going to bet against.”
Johnson wasn’t the only coach to be wowed by Duce’s abilities. Upon seeing Duce at the 7-on-7 tournament for the first time, Dana Zupke, who has been Pinnacle High School’s football coach for the past 18 seasons, knew a player of his caliber wouldn’t come around every year.
Still, despite Duce’s natural talent, not every aspect of football came easy to him. He had some shortcomings early on in his career — even learning to catch the ball took time. It was Duce’s work ethic and attention to detail that stood out to him.
In Zupke’s eyes, there was one driving force.
“What keeps coming up is, ‘My dad played both in college and I want to be like my dad.’ That’s what I hear probably more than anything,” Zupke said. “There’s ambition there and I know he wants to play both professionally. But I think it really comes down to his sense of family and identity, and I think he wants to emulate somebody that he admires and respects the most probably in this world, which is Dominic.”
IN SOME WAYS, the next few months will be familiar for Robinson — at least when it comes to his regimen: training, sprinting, lifting, batting practice four to five times a week and continuing to develop his fundamentals.
Balancing both sports, which he has done the past few years, has come naturally. Knowing his father played both sports normalized it for him. It’s what he grew up with and all he’s known. He’s watched film and studied Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders, both of whom reached stardom in the NFL and MLB.
“Deion was incredible at both sports, but Bo Jackson was the offensive guy,” Robinson said. “He was an outfielder, as well, so I’ve always looked up to him a little more than Deion. But, obviously, Deion is a super big inspiration as well.”
Robinson says he believes he can make it to both the NFL and MLB and wants to try for as long as coaches and organizations will let him. The NFL doesn’t allow athletes to enter the draft until they’re three years removed from high school, which gives him his timeline for football, but his MLB path will largely depend on his development in the minor leagues.
His path in both sports could also be impacted by the results of the MLB draft. If he’s selected in the first few rounds, would the bonus money be enough to get him to choose baseball over football? Would an MLB organization try to convince him to stick with baseball and spurn college? Does he end up being a two-sport collegiate athlete with his dream of the pros still in front of him?
The next few months can determine how the next few years will play out and how quickly he reaches his goals. He can’t predict everything that’ll happen, how long he’ll have to grind it out in the minors, or what his NFL draft stock could look like in 2026 or 2027.
Right now, Robinson is focused only on the present and what’s in front of him. As his summer of change approaches, as he prepares to take his skills to two new levels, Dominic can’t help but think about that little boy telling his father he made his all-star team.
“This will be a busy summer and it will start to get real when he reports to his school in June,” Dominic said. “He’ll do that while also preparing to become a major league baseball player. That’s a childhood dream and it’s just something that … I can’t believe that he’s doing it.
CONCORD, N.C. — Daniel Suárez, the only Mexican-born driver to win a NASCAR national series race, is out at Trackhouse Racing at the end of the 2025 season.
Trackhouse and Suárez officially called the parting a “mutual decision” that allows the driver an earlier opportunity to pursue a new ride for next season.
While Trackhouse did not name a replacement in the No. 99 Chevrolet, Suárez’s departure opened the door for the team to promote teen sensation Connor Zilisch into the ride. Zilisch, who drives in the Xfinity Series for JR Motorsports, has run three Cup races for Trackhouse this season, including Saturday night at Atlanta.
Suárez has just two wins in 305 career Cup starts, and is a distant 29th in the points standings this season. The 33-year-old Suarez is in his fifth season with Trackhouse Racing and was the team’s first driver in 2021. He made NASCAR’s playoffs two times with Trackhouse.
“We took a team nobody had even heard of in 2021 and in just a couple of years we were winning races and running upfront on a weekly basis,” Suárez wrote on social media. “Just like the seasons in a year, sometimes things change and we have agreed to each go in our own direction.”
Trackhouse founder and owner Justin Marks thanked Suárez for his contributions.
“The role Daniel has played in the Trackhouse origin story and its first five years will remain a valued part of the company’s history forever,” Marks said. “His commitment, work ethic and dedication to the effort is one of the most impressive things I personally have seen in my career.”
Trackhouse Racing also has Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen under contract, along with Zilisch is its development driver. Chastain has six career wins and was the 2022 Cup Series runner-up while van Gisbergen has a win this year and is in the playoffs.
Suárez, who became an American citizen last year, also has three Xfinity Series wins and one Truck Series win. His 2016 championship in the second-tier Xfinity Series made him the only foreign-born driver to win a national series title.
He made a triumphant return last month to his home country when he won the Xfinity Series race in Mexico City driving for JR Motorsports at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Yet the balance of celebrating a homecoming with looming contract negotiations weighed on Suárez.
“It’s not the first time that I’ve been in this position. Definitely the first time with the Mexico race, but it’s not the first time that I’ve been in the position that we have to win or in the position that we have a contract negotiation in the middle of the season,” Suárez said. “It’s definitely a distraction. I won’t sit here and tell you that it doesn’t really matter. I’m trying to be as smart as possible and to put all this stuff on the side and just do my thing on the track.”
He’ll do his thing at the track in 2026 with yet another new team.
Suárez started his Cup career with Joe Gibbs Racing and has raced for Stewart-Haas Racing and Gaunt Brothers Racing. He has Cup wins in 2022 at Sonoma and last year in Atlanta.
CHICAGO — When it comes to NASCAR’s upcoming return to downtown Chicago, Julie Giese has a long list of responsibilities. The track president is monitoring an ambitious construction schedule for the street course, to go along with everything else that goes into the busy weekend.
What happens next is going to have to wait.
The future of NASCAR in Chicago is murky going into its third edition on the first weekend in July. The three-year contract between the motorsports organization and the city that was announced in 2022 has two mutual options, and their fate is unclear.
Giese said there have been “good conversations” between NASCAR and the city, and there is time to work on the possibilities beyond the event.
“So really right now the focus is on let’s execute a really great 2025,” Giese said. “We’ll continue to have the conversations with the city. But right now, honestly, the more consistent conversations are the planning conversations.”
Jason Lee, a senior adviser to Mayor Brandon Johnson, praised NASCAR for its involvement in the community and its improvements with the event. He described almost parallel discussions going on inside of the organization and the city when it comes to the future of the partnership.
Johnson’s predecessor, Lori Lightfoot, was in charge when the original agreement for the weekend was finalized.
“We remain available to have any conversations about the future,” Lee said Monday. “I know they’ve been laser focused on executing this year’s event because there are lessons they’ve learned that they want to apply. And I think some of that, whether you successfully do that, will play a role in how they want to proceed.”
One possible change that could interest the city is moving to a different weekend, something it has discussed with NASCAR in the past.
“It may make more sense to move that event to a different weekend where we don’t have as many demands on our law enforcement and other emergency personnel,” Lee told the AP. “And so that’s definitely something that we’ve contemplated, but there is also some constraints in terms of other events in the city of Chicago and the NASCAR schedule.”
The Athletic reported June 18 that NASCAR was nearing an agreement to put a street race in the San Diego area next year. An announcement could come as soon as July.
Asked if she had spoken with NASCAR or anyone in the San Diego area about a Southern California street race, Giese said her focus is on Chicago. She also said she believes there is room for multiple street courses on NASCAR’s calendar.
“We have multiple road course races on the schedule,” she said. “So I mean … I’ve not ever heard where it has to be one or the other. I mean there is room. This event, we went into it that first year knowing full well it was a proof of concept. And we showed that it is possible.”
The Xfinity and Cup Series races in Chicago — held on a 12-turn, 2.2-mile course against the backdrop of Lake Michigan and Grant Park — are the main events in a festival-like weekend that also includes music and entertainment options.
It is geared as much to a new audience in one of NASCAR’s most important regions as it is to the most ardent racing fans. NASCAR used to race at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, a 45-mile drive from downtown, but it pulled out after the 2019 season.
“This is a top-three market for us, worldwide frankly, for NASCAR fans,” NASCAR executive Ben Kennedy said when the Chicago event was announced in 2022.
There was some concern for drivers and their teams about the course ahead of the first weekend, and it wasn’t exactly warmly received by local businesses and residents because of the street closures in a heavily trafficked area for tourists in the summer.
But organizers have shrunk the construction schedule from 43 days in 2023 to 25 this year. Based on input from fans, they also have made adjustments to the race viewing areas and moved the concert stage to the start-finish line. Admission is free for kids 12 and under on Saturday and Sunday this year.
The weekend also has won over at least some people inside of NASCAR.
“This was very different. But now it’s fun to see and hear from people in the industry that are coming in early, and they’re going to just enjoy the city for a few days,” Giese said. “The one piece that I hear from our drivers, especially, is they love just staying right at a hotel right across the street. They’re walking across Michigan Avenue and they’re at the course.”
Quite often with an umbrella. Wet weather had a major effect on each of the first two editions. Heavy rain nearly scuttled the inaugural weekend, and last year’s Cup Series race was shortened because of a rain delay and fading sunlight.
When the drivers were on the course, the racing was compelling. Shane van Gisbergen outdueled Justin Haley and Chase Elliott en route to a historic Cup victory in 2023, and Alex Bowman stopped an 80-race drought with his victory last year.
“They’ve been up against it as far as conditions are concerned,” Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin said. “The track has been good, it’s been racy and has passing zones and the scenery is fantastic as far as the backdrop we are racing in. There’s a lot of positives for the Chicago Street Race.
“It will probably move around in the future, but it’s in the mold in which I would like to see any street race they continue to implement in the future.”
HAMPTON, Ga. — Home-state favorite Chase Elliott passed Brad Keselowski on the final lap and won the crash-filled NASCAR Cup Series at Atlanta on Saturday night for his 20th career victory.
Elliott, the popular driver from Dawsonville, Georgia, earned a spot in the NASCAR playoffs with his first victory since April 2024 at Texas. It was his first win in Atlanta since 2022.
“I’ve never in my whole life, this is unbelievable,” Elliott said. “This is something I’ll remember the rest of my life.”
The race’s second crash early in Stage 2 took out many of the sport’s biggest names and left others with damaged cars. Pole winner Joey Logano, who led the first 36 laps before light rain forced the first caution, was among the many drivers caught up in the big crash.
“It wrecked the whole field,” Logano said. “I still don’t know exactly how it started … but it was total chaos. Cars were sideways and on the brakes. I got hit from every corner possible.”
Added Denny Hamlin, who suffered damage to his Toyota in the crash: “Some zigged. Some zagged. Most crashed.”
The Atlanta race at EchoPark Speedway, formerly known as Atlanta Motor Speedway, was the debut of the 32-driver In-Season Challenge, a five-race, bracket-style tournament.
The parade of highly regarded drivers to be knocked out so early in the race showed the perils of trying to pick NASCAR winners on a March Madness-style bracket sheet. The top two seeds were among the early casualties.
Hamlin, the No. 1 seed in the tournament, finished 31st and lost to Ty Dillon, who finished eighth.
Chase Briscoe, who held off Hamlin for his first win for Joe Gibbs Racing last week at Pocono Raceway, was the No. 2 seed before being knocked out in a crash and losing to Noah Gragson in the tournament.
A $1 million prize awaits the winner as part of a new media rights deal that includes TNT.
Elliott and Keselowski were on the front row when a caution with 33 laps to go forced a decision on whether to pit for fresh tires. Both stayed on the track, and Elliott faded following the restart until making his decisive charge at the very end.
Ryan Blaney was knocked out on a wreck late in the first stage. Christopher Bell hit the wall, triggering the crash that ended the stage with Cindric in the lead.
Cindric was involved in the bigger crash early in Stage 2. Kyle Busch, Hamlin and Bubba Wallace were among others involved in the crash.
Photo finish
Tyler Reddick beat Elliott to the finish line by 0.001 to win Stage 2 in a battle between drivers looking for their first stage win and overall victory of the season.
Weather woes
Lightning and rain delayed qualifying Friday and the Xfinity race won by Nick Sanchez late Friday. More lightning and rain threatened Saturday night’s race. Fans were encouraged to leave the stands about 90 minutes before the race due to severe weather in the area but were allowed to return as the pre-race was conducted as planned.
Up next
The Cup Series moves to Chicago for the Chicago Street Race on July 6.
