For as long as he can remember, Allen Robinson wanted to be a professional athlete. He told his teachers in public and private school. He told his parents. He told his friends.



Tracie Robinson remembered when her son got up in front of his kindergarten class and let everyone know he was going to play sports for a living one day.



“That dream never swayed,” she said in the family room of the Robinson home outside Detroit. “Any time anyone ever asked him, ‘What do you want to do?’ He would always say the same thing. It was belief. He truly believed it at that point and never stopped believing it.”



“As a parent, though,” said Allen Sr., “we always looked at it as, you’ve gotta pick something else.”



Robinson’s sister Ashley, who flourished in academics and now works for the Detroit Tigers, remembers her parents encouraging a young Allen Robinson to follow his dreams.



“I...