It’s hard not to notice DeMarcus Cousins.
Standing at 6-foot-10 with his playing weight hovering around 270 pounds, he walked through the fan section of training camp practice on August 7, and half of Raider Nation either mobbed him for photos or just gawked over the size of the former NBA center.
Cousins has been a Las Vegas resident for 10 years now, but his fandom for the Silver and Black originated in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama.
Splitting time between Mobile and Birmingham, Alabama, as a kid, he had a first-hand look at five-star quarterback prospect JaMarcus Russell – who ironically attended Cousins’ rival high school.
He kept up with the hometown hero throughout his illustrious college career at LSU and later when Russell became the Oakland Raiders’ No. 1 overall pick in 2007 NFL Draft.
“Regardless of how it turned out as far as his professional career … he’s the reason why I became a Raiders fan,” Cousins told Raiders.com.
“When the Raiders moved out here, it felt like a gift sent from God, specifically for me,” he said. “[Being] from Alabama, we never had our own professional sports team, so the team I was a fan of, I’ve always had to be a fan from afar. I feel like it was meant to be and that’s how I know this place is home for me.”