Former Dolphins WR Robbie Chosen had a tough childhood growing up. As his father Jason Anderson was incarcerated early on, his mother Kim Shubert had to raise him single-handedly and left no stone unturned to give him a good upbringing. And while he may not have realized it then, he now understands how much his mother had to sacrifice to raise him on her own.
Advertisement
Appearing on The Pivot podcast, Chosen reminisced about the hard days he had to face in his formative years. Many kids would have easily lost their trajectory if they were in the WR’s shoes. However, Robbie credited his mother for teaching him right from wrong. He was particularly proud of his mother for being transparent and working extra hard to ensure he kept pursuing sports.
She did so by working 2-3 jobs. Chosen reminisced about the times when their old car would break down while traveling to school, but Kim, his mother, made sure that he would reach school on time. He said,
“Like I remember walking out, going to school, the car breaks down but still making sure I get to school and figuring it out, and working two-three jobs doing all she can to have me in sports and in something positive. Even when I was young, she would fight so hard to try to keep me away from certain environments and things that I didn’t understand at that time. But [once I matured], I see what she was trying to protect me from.”
While his mother tried her best to not let Chosen feel the absence of his father, the WR still felt his life would have been smoother if he had his father’s presence around him, as he found it difficult to connect with his mother due to his dual race identity.
Robbie Chosen Reveals Why Connecting With His Mother Was Tough At Times
While Chosen is biracial, he relates more to the black part of his heritage. He opined to the hosts at The Pivot that this caused a disconnect between him and his mother because Kim was a white woman. So, connecting with her and sharing typical ‘black man problems’ was tough. He shared,
“And it was like with my mom, I got to a point where especially to me being mixed and me being a black man and not a black man…it was hard for me on certain things to connect with her, certain things she just can’t understand in a sense just being transparent so that’s where some of my struggles came from in a sense.”
Moreover, Chosen also felt that if he had a father figure to discipline him and guide him in the ways of the world, life would have been easier for him:
“I didn’t listen you know. My life could have been a lot easier if I would have just did the right thing and just listen but I didn’t have that father figure to implement that.”
Unfortunately for Chosen, life was not a fairytale. While the WR and his father do share a cordial relationship now, the damage from his absence was done. Regardless, Chosen stands proud of himself and his mother as it was their joint effort that led him to where he is today.
