Not even if you’re playing basketball with him.

Washburn, 6-3 and 270 pounds, can post you up in a New York minute. He has forearms big as telephone poles and biceps so huge it looks like he’s stuffed a fully-inflated roundball under each sleeve of his T-shirt.

He has basketball skills in addition to his strength. Eight years and 60 pounds ago in his prep days at Chase High in Forest City, he was all-conference and team MVP.

To this day, Washburn prefers to shoot rainbow jumpers, but when the going gets tough he’s not above taking his opponent into the paint.

“Down low is my bread and butter,” says Washburn with an evil grin. “I get you down there, it’s a sure win.”

Most of the Washburn men over the years have been pretty good at basketball.

You’ve probably heard of Ronnie’s towering first cousin, Chris Washburn, who came out of Hickory as a teenage legend but got in a little trouble at N.C. State. And then flopped after being an NBA lottery pick.

You may not have heard of Ronnie’s little brother, Clifford, just yet. He’s 6-6, 235, and started at center for The Citadel last season as a freshman.

“We’re a tall family,” says Washburn. “Some of my uncles are 7-footers.”

But Ronnie Washburn wasn’t seven feet tall and the basketball recruiters didn’t exactly beat down his door when he graduated from Chase, where he labored in the shadow of the ShelbyLions and Crest Chargers.

And the football recruiters had no idea who Washburn was. They underestimated him because he only played one season at Chase.

But Washburn’s mom, who is both a teacher and a preacher, didn’t let him sit around. She talked him into enrolling at nearby Gardner-Webb University to get an education.

“She said it was a good Christian school,” says Washburn.

The Bulldogs didn’t have scholarship money for Washburn, but they invited the kid out for football tryouts just for kicks.And that’s when they were shocked to see Washburn kicking butt.

“I think,” says Washburn, smiling at the memory, “that I was a little more athletic than they’d expected.”

One of Washburn’s coaches pulled him aside one day and told him he thought he had the size, quickness and aggressiveness to play pro football if he put his mind to it. Washburn remembered those encouraging words, but things never did click for him at G-W.

So he left school and went to work. He toiled for Pepsi and sweated as a water proofer. He earned paychecks from MDI and punched the clock in a K-Mart distribution center.

Then, after four years of wearing a blue collar, fate decided that it was time for Washburn to wear the uniform of a Blue Bear.

One of Washburn’s aunts phoned the Bears about her nephew, and in return, Livingstone defensive line coach, Artis Smith, called Ronnie.

Deciding to give school one more try, Washburn then had to choose between the Bears and North Carolina Central.

“There was more to do in Durham,” said Washburn. “But Livingstone had the kind of small-town atmosphere I wanted. And they were winning.”

In 1998, Washburn stepped on the field with his new teammates and made a sudden impact. Opponents underestimated him and ran right at him. And the big guy responded with 16 tackles for loss and five sacks. He was named CIAA Defensive Player of the Year.

That 1998 aggregation of Blue Bears was awesome. They scrimmaged tough Catawba (and Washburn’s cousin, Michael Robinson) and Washburn says it was too close to call.

“I say we won, they’d tell you they won,” he said.

This year, though, the Bears have struggled and even Washburn admits the Bears would have “no hope” against the Tribe. The Livingstone defense is young, and opponents have found huge holes. Every play is run away from Washburn.

Still, he has managed 11 sacks and 20 tackles for loss, numbers that should make him a repeater as Defensive Player of the Year.

“I got my sacks this year by running people down,” he says. “Everyone knows me now and I’m always double- and triple-teamed.”

NFL scouts will tell you that Washburn is a possible draft pick this April.

“I hear my name keeps coming up,” Washburn says. “I’ve run shuttle drills and 40 times for scouts and seven or eight teams have asked the school for film.”

Washburn’s numbers are impressive. He’s no wash-out. He can run 40 yards in 4.7 seconds and can bench press 470 pounds. He’s the prototype NFL draftee in all ways but one.

His age.

Because of the lengthy interlude between his career at Gardner-Webb and his comeback at Livingstone, Washburn is 26, three years older than the average draftee.

“I hope they won’t hold that against me,” says Washburn. “I’m a young 26. I won’t be 27 until next summer. I know a few years ago a lineman my age and size was drafted on the first round. But he was at Arizona State,a big D-I school.”

Washburn will appear in the Snow Bowl all-star game for college seniors, and he’s a possibility for the Blue-Gray Game, so he may yet make a lasting impression on one of those scouts.

“All I’m looking for is opportunity,” he says. “If I make it, I make it. If I don’t, I want to know I gave it my all.”

NFL teams would be wise to open the door. Otherwise they may join that long list of people who once underestimated Ronnie Washburn.