Robinson cool with hoopla during week

Don’t flatter yourself too much Mr. Irrelevant.

A lady had just met, greeted, and checked out Ramzee Robinson. Boost up the ego of Mr. Irrelevant XXXII why don’t you?

Just for a moment.

“I think you’re the cutest Mr. Irrelevant,” she said before closing the sentence with, “they’ve had in five years.”

Robinson played it smooth, downplaying the diss. Get used to it former University of Alabama defensive back. At least she was cuter than a wide receiver burning you for a touchdown.

“Why, thank you,” said the 23-year-old with a smile.

The last player chosen in the 2007 NFL Draft had no other choice but to be grateful. To her and the hundreds who came out to celebrate the 255th pick during Irrelevant Week.

An event turned maddening at times for Robinson with all the requests.

Sign your name here, answer mundane questions from the media, smile for the cameras, play with Goofy at Disneyland, rake the infield at a Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim baseball game, work as a bartender, and steer a 48-foot sailboat during a beer can regatta.

Throughout all of it, Robinson kept his cool during his first trip to California and when he flew out Saturday.

He’s from Huntsville, Ala., what do you expect? The Salata family, which orchestrates Irrelevant Week, showered Robinson and his date, uncle Majin Childress, with some of the Southern hospitality they’re used to.

To Childress, a 32-year-old landscaper, that meant lots of free drinks.

Others trying to make a buck off Robinson sometimes didn’t treat him so warmly.

Can you believe the founder of an mp3 player told Robinson his company would endorse Robinson if he made it in the NFL?

Talk about pressure.

Sink or swim.

Makes sense, the company makes waterproof mp3 players.

The Detroit Lions warned the rookie about the excess exposure. Watch out especially for the media. The Detroit Free Press sent out its Lions beat writer, Nicholas J. Cotsonika, to cover the shenanigans.

Cotsonika said the Lions were worried about his daily reports. He said he was just trying to write positive Lions stories, which are lacking in his paper.

Maybe the Lions, who finished 3-13 last season and haven’t had a winning season since 2000, should concentrate on winning football games.

“If you’re going to be the last pick in the draft, what better team to go to than the Lions, who have the worst record in the league the last six years,” said Cotsonika, a true believer in Robinson.

“It’s an uphill battle, but they need cornerbacks. He can play nickel back as well, he can play special teams, and the more you can do, the better chance you have of making the team.”

Making the team, any NFL team. Isn’t that what Irrelevant Week is all about? The underdog?

There’s a list of the past Mr. Irrelevant recipients on the Irrelevant Week website: www.irrelevantweek.com. Have fun because that’s a list any promising NFL rookie wants no part of because the list says 23 players never made it out of training camp with the team that drafted them.

At least the list mentions 14 experienced short stints, but check out the characters, especially the first Mr. Irrelevant.

Kelvin Kirk missed his plane to the Irrelevant Week festivities in California after getting drafted in 1976 by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He then missed the NFL, getting cut. The site says Kirk went on and played seven years in the Canadian Football League, and lived in Quebec and worked for the Ottawa Citizen.

In Canada and he worked for a newspaper?

Remember Robinson wants to stay in the U.S., play real football, and have scribes follow him around, like they did during Irrelevant Week, not the other way around. And preferably make his home in Newport Coast, where Kobe Bryant lives.

“Is he going to get traded?” said Robinson as though he could afford the mansion the disgruntled star guard demanding to be dealt lives in.

One day Robinson might. If he can impress his coach, Rod Marinelli, and avoid getting cut during training camp.

That might be practically impossible. Well, to impress Marinelli, who told Cotsonika he wrestled a bear in the summer of 1966 before his senior year at Rosemead High. Good enough reason for Robinson why Rosemead High named its football stadium after one of its former players and coaches, Marinelli, who graduated from Rosemead 40 years ago.

“Really?” said Robinson, acknowledging that any act with a bear will earn you some serious street cred.

The bear won the contest staged by a car dealership near Pasadena, but still, it was a freaking bear.

Robinson didn’t wrestle any big animals with the Crimson Tide, but he had plenty of confrontations with back injuries. In 2005, he suffered a stress fracture of the vertebra, but he did not miss any games. He also dislocated his left pinky early that season.

To make the Lions, Robinson might have to revert to that fighting spirit. There are two big-time receivers, NFL Pro Bowler Roy Williams and this year’s No. 2 draft pick Calvin Johnson, that will test him on a daily basis. The Lions’ training camp begins July 25.

Check your paws Robinson because these two receivers, 6-foot-2 and 6-4, respectively, are beasts. If he can claw those two down, he might be on his way to playing in the NFL.

If that happens, then the 5-9, 196-pound Robinson can cajole himself. Or just scratch himself because then Mr. Irrelevant would be relevant in the NFL.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at david.carrillo@latimes.com.