During Saturday’s Ohio State-Michigan game, a Fox TV announcer said that J.K. Dobbins is a “miracle baby” who escaped being aborted by his mother and went on to become a standout college football player.
During the Buckeyes’ lopsided 56-27 upset over the Michigan Wolverines, Fox announcer Gus Johnson related a touching story about Dobbins as he scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
“J.K. Dobbins’ mom, Mya, became pregnant when she was 18 years old,” the announcer explained. “She went to the doctor because she was thinking about aborting the baby but changed her mind. That baby turned out to be that young man — J.K. Dobbins, who she calls her ‘miracle baby.'”
Dobbins rose above a less than ideal childhood to become one of the top players in college football today.
The player’s parents never married. And, while they did both help raise him, his father spiraled into despair and trouble with the law after his own sports career floundered.
Dobbins’ father, Lawrence, was track and field athlete in college and played football for Blinn College. But he ended up in prison where he died after suffering a stroke in 2014 at the young age of 33.
Still, the young player says he was close to his father. “My dad taught me a lot of things through actions and through words,” Dobbins told Cleveland.com. “Seeing what he was doing, and the trouble he got in, I didn’t want to be like that, and he told me he didn’t want me to be like that. So that’s how I see it. I didn’t want to go there.”
Dobbins has rushed 250 times for 1,657 yards so far this year and has also earned 19 touchdowns. In the big win against Michigan alone he rushed for 211 yards and scored 4 touchdowns.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston.