His uniform last fall and winter consisted of a Sprouts Farmers Market T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans. Instead of his name on the back of a football jersey, his identity was confirmed by a button that he wore on his chest.



“My name is Darren,” it read. “I’m from Acworth, Georgia.”



He often noticed shoppers at the suburban Atlanta supermarket looking him up and down as he stacked groceries on shelves. Some even worked up the nerve to say something.



“There would be customers that would be like, ‘Oh my goodness, you’re so big. You should be on a field somewhere,’” Ravens tight end Darren Waller said. “I’d be like, ‘Well, it’s a long story.’”



The first thing anybody notices about Waller is his size. He’s 6-foot-6 and 255 pounds with the broad shoulders, chiseled arms and thick legs of an NBA power forward. The next thing people notice is his smile. It...