This morning, Steeler quarterback Ben Roethlisberger crashed his motorcyle into a car on the approach to the 10th Street Bridge in Dahntahn* Pittsburgh, smashing up his face pretty badly. At first, the reports indicated that he had badly hurt one or both knees, but later that story was changed. His head injuries, however, included a broken jaw and broken teeth. Seven hours of surgery was required to fix Ben’s face, and he is in serious but stable condition. ???? ????? ?????? Surgeons claim to have put Humpty together again. bwin ???? He was not wearing a helmet. Read the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story here.
Not smart, Ben. In past interviews, Roethlisberger has defended his right not to wear a helmet when tooling around on his big bike, especially since Pennsylvania had rescinded its helmet law in 2003. But just because the law permits it, there’s no excuse for stupidity. ???? Ben can be the most careful motorcycle rider in history, yet he still risks serious head injuries not wearing a helmet. Hell, he doesn’t even have to be in motion—he could be just sitting on the damn hog at a red light and have someone plow into him from behind. He cannot control the other guy, even if he makes absolutely no mistakes himself. Stupid. He’s under contract for big bucks and he owes it to the Steelers to protect his valuable ass, head, knees, hand and whatever else belongs to the contracted entity.
There have been many recent instances of motorcycle injuries involving professional athletes which have damaged or ended their big bucks careers. Point guard Jason Williams of the Chicago Bulls and wide receiver Kellen Winslow, Jr. of the Cleveland Browns are two who quickly come to mind. Way back when, even Vinnie Testaverde had a motorcycle incident when he was a student at the University of Miami—as I recall, he was carrying a bag of hamburgers in one hand and driving with the other or some such thing. In any case, there’s just too much risk inherent in riding motorcycles in traffic to allow for it in professional sports contracts. At the very least, such contracts should specify that protective clothing and headgear must be worn.
The Turkey wishes Big Ben a speedy recovery from both his physical injuries and his poor judgment.
*Pittsburghese for “downtown”
Share this:
Share this:
Discover more from The Nittany Turkey
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Malnurtured Snay says
I imagine that, in the future, major sports franchises will soon start adding in various clauses governing their players’ free-time activities and specifying certain safety requirements for “high risk” activities.
I don’t feel sorry for Roethlisberger. He had to have been aware of the risks — a local disc jockey said today, I’m paraphrasing, “How does someone who has to wear a helmet at his work to protect from a head injury not understand the importance of wearing one while biking?” — and by choosing to ignore those risks, he brought this upon himself.
He’s very lucky — not just to be alive, but to be in a position where he can afford for himself the best medical treatment. Of course, I think his lasting legacy will now be as a warning from parents to convince their children to wear bike helmets, and not for anything done as a Steelers QB.
The Nittany Turkey says
I was just talking with my barber this morning, and he came up with the same comment about the helmet, even though he’s a Cowboy fan. I told him that if Ben continues along this path, he’ll have more concussions than Troy Aikman, and he’ll only have been playing in the NFL for three years.
On a related note, I see that the Vegas oddsmakers have revised the odds of the Steelers winning the Super Bowl this year from 8–1 to 20–1. I guess they’re not impressed by the sanguine reports from the docs and the team.
Perhaps the Steelers should consider giving Tommy Maddox and Kordell Stewart short-term contracts as insuance. OK OK–JUST KIDDING!
—TNT