Getty Images Chicago Bears WR Allen Robinson
Allen Robinson has been one of the best and most unique players the Chicago Bears have added over the last two seasons. Not only has Robinson been the team’s best offensive player, he has also become an immediate asset to the community, using his charity, the Within Reach Foundation, to provide local children with everything from food to new and improved learning environments.
Robinson went on analyst Jim Rome’s radio show this week to discuss his offseason activities, including the work he and his foundation have been doing in and around the city. “In this tough, challenging time, everything is a little bit different … I’m still trying to do my part as far as in the community and also do my part preparing myself for the season,” he told Rome. After discussing a new workout routine that includes soccer training techniques, the conversation shifted to how Robinson has recovered since tearing his ACL in the first game of the 2017 season, when he was with the Jaguars.
What Robinson said about recovering from that specific injury is another illustration of why he’s such an original and valuable player.
A-Rob: I Was ‘Grateful’ for My ACL Injury
Rome asked Robinson how he built himself up mentally and physically after the ACL tear, and his answer revealed the wideout’s humility.
“That was a big thing, wanting to wake up everyday and feel like I felt the day before I got injured,” Robinson said. “Just the fact that a lot of guys say, when they step onto the field that they’re hard workers, that they have a passion for the game. Everything that you say will one day be tested. For me, it was all tested through that injury.”
Robinson said perhaps the biggest lesson he learned throughout the ordeal was how to be patient, and he noted he was grateful for learning the myriad lessons that came with the injury. “Me getting myself back out there, facing adversity … everything was tested, and I think for me, for my own career, I’m very grateful for suffering that, because I think it took me to a standpoint mentally that I don’t know if I would be at right now if I didn’t have that injury. I think it challenged me in a lot of different ways I hadn’t been challenged before.”
Rome asked Robinson if he could do it all over again, would he still go through the ACL injury, or would he have been better off not having gone through it?
“I think the easy road would say, you know, [I’d be] better having not gone through it, but I don’t think that,” Robinson explained. “I think that I’m better having gone through that. I think it taught me a lot of different things and also landed me into the place I am now. I love playing in Chicago.” How much does he love being a Bear?
“This has been the most fun that I’ve had in my career,” Robinson said. Robinson went on to re-iterate something he has been saying for months now: he wants to be the Bears’ all-time leading receiver. “I think that’s special,” Robinson said. “When you think about the Bears’ tradition, how long they’ve been around, to be able to, at the end of my career say that’s me in the all-time leading spot … that’s definitely a special accomplishment.”
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