MIAMI GARDENS — Kadyn Proctor took the podium for the first time as a Miami Dolphin, a waste of a riser if there ever was one.
At 6-feet-7 and 352 pounds, Proctor requires no assistance in looking like a very large human being. So if you’re going to start a conversation with Proctor the Protector, his size has to be the on ramp.
“When I was younger, I wouldn’t say it was like bullying or anything like that,” he said. “But I was always the bigger, chunkier kid. So everybody’s gonna try to laugh and make fun of you.
Watch NFL Draft on Fubo
“But it’s all right. I got the last laugh now.”
Proctor was mere hours removed from being the first draft pick in the new regime of general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan, who figured if you’re going to splurge once in free agency (on quarterback Malik Willis), you better invest in keeping him in one piece (on offensive lineman Kadyn Proctor, 12th overall pick).
As for Proctor, he arrived to offer South Florida a piece of himself. A piece of the kind of personality you don’t always find in the anonymity that thrives in the offensive linemen’s room.
“You only get one life, so you gotta live it to the fullest,” he said.
Kadyn Proctor has more than 300 bottles of cologne
Proctor makes no apologies for one crutch in his life.
“Yeah, I got a problem,” he said.
Uh-oh. Whatever it is, were the Dolphins aware of this?
“But it’s a good problem to have,” he said.
He’s addicted to wearing cologne. He said he has somewhere north of 330 bottles of the stuff.
“Good to be out there and have people know that you love smelling good,” he said.
Hey, some actors are big on letting people know which designer dressed them for Oscars night. Proctor is proud to let everybody know what he wore for draft night.
“Clive Christian Blonde Amber,” he said.
You too can be like Kadyn Proctor. March into Saks Fifth Avenue with $610 in spare room on your credit card and it’s yours.
“I don’t even know how to explain it,” he said. “It just smells like royalty.”
Proctor got hooked on colognes as a kid, borrowing from his dad’s collection and enjoying hearing compliments in school. “I need to continue that,” he decided.
Will Kadyn Proctor’s weight be an issue in the heat?
Proctor warned that “we could take up the whole time talking about colognes,” but Dolphins fans would love to know if this high draft pick will turn out as sweet as he smells. Nick Saban, one of his coaches at Alabama, raised a concern on draft night by saying Proctor didn’t arrive in Tuscaloosa as a self-starter. His weight ballooned to about 400 pounds, making you wonder if Proctor might wilt when the heat index hits triple digits in training camp.
Proctor respectfully requests people don’t turn up their nose on him based on that. Obviously, he turned things around as his collegiate career wore on enough to be considered first-round material.
“It took me a minute, up until midseason in my freshman year, to really figure that out,” he said of the work ethic question. “I’m 17 years old playing in the SEC.”
Will our humidity be his undoing? Proctor has an answer for that, too.
“I’m coming from Alabama with the humidity,” he said. “So, I mean, that’s what I’m used to.”
He explained that the conditioning staff with the Crimson Tide suggested he begin working at Hotworx, a sweatshop of sorts in that clients work out in 130-degree heat and chill out in 170-degree saunas.
“It just feels good to me,” he said.
If teams inquired about his weight at the NFL Combine, Proctor was ready. He said he arrived in Indianapolis armed with rehearsed answers to team’s questions but quickly gave up on them, instead relying on Kadyn being Kadyn and hoping teams were fine with that. Luckily for Sullivan, the Dolphins weren’t among those first few stiff interviews.
Some sharp-eyed Dolphins fans already are wondering if this pick was destiny. Turns out Proctor has two years tattooed on his hands. One is 2005, when he was born. The other is 1972, not for Larry Csonka, but for his stepfather.
“I also know that’s a championship year,” he said, already informed on what 17-0 means in these parts. “I suppose it was meant to be.”
On his first full day as a Miami Dolphins, maybe it was.
Made all the scents in the world.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Miami Dolphins top pick Kadyn Proctor gets ‘last laugh now’ | Habib
Reporting by Hal Habib, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
