by Matt Wells
It is widely believed that money gets you beautiful women. So does the status of an athlete for a professional sports team. A fancy sports car might get you a pretty gal on your arm, too. A motorcycle, on the other hand? Well, that will just get deliver trouble.
The new cardinal rule for sports athletes should be this: “When enjoying leisurely activities, stay away from motorcycles. Play golf. Spend time with loved ones. Go swimming. Hang out with friends. But, for the love of God, don’t ride a motorcycle.”With the injury to “Big Ben” Rothelisberger this past week, I thought I would take a look at three players, Big Ben included, that have delayed their careers (and nearly ended them) doing foolish things on a motorcycle.
Ben Rothelisberger, quarterback, Pittsburgh Steelers:
On Monday morning, Steeler quarterback Ben Rothelisberger, as everyone knows by now, injured himself riding helmetless on his motorcycle. Riding down Pittsburgh’s Second Avenue, he collided with a car making a left turn. Rothelisberger was thrown over the handlebars of his motorcycle. His head then struck the windshield of the turning vehicle.
According to a Pittsburgh news report, Rothelisberger suffered a broken nose, broken jaw, lost teeth, fractured his left sinus cavity bone, and had a laceration on his head. He would spend just about all day in surgery on Monday.
“So?,” I hear you asking me. “He’s not going to miss any playing time, right?” Well, Big Ben makes my short list of motorcycle injuries for two reasons: (1) he wasn’t wearing a helmet, and (2) witnesses thought he was dead. That’s right…deceased.
-First off, as previously mentioned, Rothelisberger was helmetless. He ignored coach Bill Cowher’s warnings about not wearing a helmet while doing what he loved. Terry Bradshaw, while visiting Steelers camp last year, told Rothelisberger to wait until retirement to enjoy his riding.
Rothelisberger was stupid, and there’s no doubt about that. Pennsylvania revoked a mandatory helmet-wearing rule a few years back, and Rothelisberger decided to go the unsafe route. “I feel freer,” Rothelisberger told a reporter during an interview on ESPN last year.
-Secondly, witnesses thought that Rothelisberger, who wasn’t moving after the crash, was dead. His head had smashed the windshield of the car he hit, for goodness sakes.
The stupid move of not wearing a helmet almost cost Rothelisberger his life. He was, and still is, at the top of the world, leading the Steelers to two playoff appearances in his first two years. He won a Super Bowl in his second year. Most sports athletes at Rothelisberger’s age are on the path to stardom. Rothelisberger has already achieved stardom.
And he almost died because he was “freer?” Yes, he’s alive. No, it doesn’t look like he’ll miss any playing time this season. Yes, it was a bonehead move. And, no, he will never, ever do it again. It’s a shame that Rothelisberger had to have something like this happen to him for him to learn his lesson.
Jay Williams, guard, (then) Chicago Bulls:
On June 19, 2003, while riding helmetless, Williams crashed his new Yamaha bike into a telephone pole on the north side of Chicago. The guard, drafted #2 overall out of Duke in the 2002 draft, was thought to be one of the next great players in the NBA. Instead of proving the scouts right, Williams shattered his pelvis, blew up knee ligaments and suffered nerve damage.
Then-teammate Marcus Fizer had warned Williams of the potential dangers of riding a motorcycle. Williams, as we all know, didn’t listen. “I told him before, that may not be something that you want to do in your career at this time. Any number of things can happen to you,” Fizer said back then. “I tell all these young guys who like to ride motorcycles that. A lot of them still do it, though.” The AP College Player of the Year for 2002 would spend several days in surgery.
Williams’s injury was so serious that he is just now working his way back…three years later. Yes, Williams has tried out with some teams since then, but he hasn’t come close to making a roster. Several teams have Williams to tryouts over the past week, seeing if the youngster can regain what the abilities he had before the life-altering accident.
Kellen Winslow, Jr., tight end, Cleveland Browns:
The former tight end for the University of Miami was the 6th overall pick of the 2004 draft for the Cleveland Browns. In fact, the Browns actually traded a second-round draft pick that year in order to move up in the draft and get Winslow.
Much like Rothelisberger (see above), Winslow messed up…big time. After missing most of the 2004 season (his rookie year) after breaking his leg recovering an onside kick, Winslow would take his new Suzuki motorcycle for a spin in a community college parking lot in Cleveland.
Winslow, who was wearing a helmet that wasn’t strapped, was performing tricks on a bike that was reportedly too powerful for him. Winslow would hit a curb and flip over the handlebars (sound familiar?…), and he would need reconstructive surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee as a result.
According to reports, Winslow breached his Browns contract, which expressly prohibited him from participating in “hazardous activities” such as “motorcycling.” Oops. Chalk this one up to stupidity. Winslow would miss the entire 2005 season thanks to motorcycle recklessness, meaning that, in his first 2 years, he caught 5 balls. That isn’t exactly the type of production you want from a #6 pick, is it?
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It just goes to show you that, no matter how much money you have, or how successful your sports career might be, motorcycles seem to be the equivalent of the “Kiss of Death.” If you ride it, bad things will happen. Just ask those three guys.
Thank God they’re all alive. Yes, it’s better to be alive then dead. It’s also better to be healthy than injured. It’s a shame that a serious accident is the only way to get the point across that reckless driving of motorcycles is W-R-O-N-G, wrong. It’s not only wrong, it’s dangerous.
But, hey, it’s better to learn it sometime then never learn it at all. Right?
SOURCES:
http://www.wtov9.com/news/9356269/detail.html
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/bulls/2003-06-19-williams-leg_x.htm
http://sports.mostvaluablenetwork.com/general/nfl/kellen-winslow-jr-another-dumb-athlete/
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/05/20/170859.php
