Pitt Receiver Tyreek Robinson Lands a Big Bass — and a Trip to the Coach’s Office

iSportsman Staff

Most college football players probably expect to get called into the head coach’s office over a missed assignment, busted curfew or some other lapse in judgment. Pitt wide receiver Tyreek Robinson got summoned because he went fishing. More specifically, because of where he went fishing.

According to The Athletic, the redshirt sophomore from Shreveport, Louisiana, recently grabbed a rod and headed to the Monongahela River, which flows right past Pitt’s South Side football complex in Pittsburgh. Robinson apparently found the fishing pretty good, too, hauling in a bass he estimated at 5 to 6 pounds.

Naturally, he did what any self-respecting angler does when he catches a fish worth bragging about: He sent a picture to his buddies. Unfortunately, those buddies happened to be in Pitt’s receivers group chat, and the photo eventually made its way to head coach Pat Narduzzi. That earned Robinson a trip to the principal’s office.

Pitt wide receiver Tyreek Robinson got summoned to the coach’s office because he went fishing. (Pitt Football Photo)

Narduzzi told The Athletic he questioned why his receiver was eating fish from the river when he could simply buy fish nearby. Robinson, meanwhile, said coaches warned him the river was polluted. He apparently hadn’t gotten the memo.

Robinson has been fishing since he was about 6, when his father introduced him to the sport at a pond near their Louisiana home. The habit followed him north to Pittsburgh, where a big piece of moving water practically outside the practice facility proved too tempting to ignore. The Athletic reported Robinson has caught everything from bass around Pittsburgh to a personal-best 12-pound redfish landed during a birthday trip when he was 14.

As for Narduzzi’s concerns, they aren’t completely without foundation. Pennsylvania maintains fish-consumption advisories because contaminants including mercury and PCBs can accumulate in certain fish. The state’s general recommendation is no more than one meal per week of recreationally caught Pennsylvania fish, while some species and waterways carry more restrictive advisories.

That doesn’t mean every bass pulled from the Monongahela is radioactive, but checking the current consumption advisory before firing up the skillet is probably smart.

Robinson might want to stick with catch-and-release for a while anyway. But you can’t blame him for loving to fish.

However, with Pitt’s season about to begin, his coach would probably prefer the only thing his receiver is catching is footballs.