Iranian Football

Top gridiron recruit Willie Mobley has one eye on the Big Ten and the other on geopolitics

Comments (0) By Matt Snyders Wednesday, Dec 12 2007

The kitchen remains silent.

"It's all funny, but in a sad way," Golbabaie finally says, turning away from the TV. "There's so much misinformation that people just buy into. On both sides. Everything gets exaggerated."

Matt Snyders

"People can see I'm a mix of something, but they can't tell of what," Willie Mobley says of his heritage. "When they ask, I always tell them both sides: black and Persian."

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He limits the political discussion to that. No need for a polemic. And, besides, Roxanne has other things she'd rather talk about. Namely, her son. When she mentions her hope that Willie will embrace both sides of his heritage, Mobley agrees but with a caveat: "I can learn about black culture on my own just through my friends and being American," he says. "But there's not a lot of Persians here, so that's harder. That's why I want to learn more about that side of my culture."

To that end, he plans on taking a Persian language and an Iranian culture class when he starts at Ohio State. "And I definitely want to visit my relatives in Iran," Mobley adds. "My grandmother always says, 'It's beautiful here!' I just have to find the time." He pauses, realizing what the next four or five years will likely have in store. "I should probably go before college starts."