COLUMBUS, OHIO ? The fathers of some Ohio State players are doctors. Others are lawyers and wealthy businessmen, and some played pro football.

Only one, however, leaves the Buckeyes begging for autographs.

The player, James Laurinaitis, is a freshman who has seen little playing time at linebacker and on special teams this season. But he’s a big man with his teammates because his father is “The Animal” of

professional-wrestling fame, part of the WWE tag team called Road Warriors or the Legion of Doom.

“A lot of the guys are into it, a lot more than you would think,” said Laurinaitis, a 6-foot-3, 231-pounder. “I was kind of hoping I’d come here and maybe no one would really know about it. But it turns into every day someone will ask me about it.”

Many college kids have grown up steeped in WWE lore. It means far more to some of them to meet a professional wrestler than a senator or Hollywood celebrity.

Joe Laurinaitis, known as The

“I knew all of the guys: Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Andre The Giant and all of those guys,” senior linebacker Anthony Schlegel said. “And, of course, his dad. Now he’s here, and we talk to him. He’s a great guy.”

A.J. Hawk, the Buckeyes’ All-American linebacker, said word spread quickly when Laurinaitis was considering Ohio State.

“Everybody’s excited to see his dad,” he said. “We heard when James was getting recruited about his dad. It was cool. His dad’s a really good guy. He comes in and talks to us. He’s still out there wrestling at 40-something. So we have a lot of respect for him.”

Joe Laurinaitis, still the WWE tag-team champion at age 43, is a doting father who has missed only one Ohio State game this season and is a familiar face around the team. And, no, that face isn’t painted when he attends games, as it is when he steps into the ring.

“When we went to homecoming games in elementary school and middle school, my friends would be like, ‘Hey, Joe, can you paint our faces for the game?”‘ James said. “And he’d paint them in either his design or the Road Warriors design. He’d do it in blue and varsity gold, our (school) colors instead of his colors. He was pretty cool about it.”

James Laurinaitis was counseled early on by his father that he was not to follow him into pro wrestling.

Ohio State's James Laurinaitis (33) runs alongside Ted Ginn Jr. (7) on a punt return against Texas's Michael Huff in this file photo from Sept. 10.

Joe Laurinaitis and his wife, Julia, also have a younger daughter, Jessica, considered one of the top female hockey players in Minnesota. Joe’s brother John also works for WWE as Vince McMahon’s right-hand man — when he isn’t wrestling as “Johnny Ace.”

For now, Laurinaitis is a promising player who has yet to step out of his father’s

Animal-sized shadow.

“He’s beyond what you think a freshman would be,” Hawk said. “He’s going to be a great player here.”