Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Transport entry No. 3

But don't tell them that. Yet another multi-million dollar athlete injured himself while doing an activity that most contracts say is off limits.
Free agent Lavar Arrington crashed his motorcycle Monday and was taken to a hospital with serious injuries.
While Arrington is not under contract to any team and will probably recover, it does bring up the issue of athletes and motorcycles.
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, Cleveland Browns tight end Kellen Winslow and former Chicago Bulls guard Jay Williams all injured themselves on motorcycles, while under contract.
Why does this continue to happen? Because they think they are invincible. When you excel at something, you sign contracts that say "no motorcycle riding" without thinking because, you know, nothing horrible can happen to you. Throughout your life, you're being told you are great and there is nobody better than you.
But then, when you least expect it (maybe when you're a free agent trying to rehabilitate an injury and latch on to some team), fate comes around and reminds you that nobody can completely avoid injuries.
The phenomenon is pretty stupid.
If a contract was there, ready to pay me millions of dollars to play a sport, and the contract said "no walking," I'd use those millions of dollars to pay somebody to carry me around.

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