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| | Wednesday, February 9 | |||||
ESPN.com | ||||||
| A few months ago, after Michael Irvin was discovered to have a congenital neck problem only after he was left temporarily paralyzed during a game, I wrote an impassioned column about how the NFL should do mandatory neck exams at its annual combine to figure out which prospects are at the highest risk of ending up like wet noodles.
It's the human thing to do, I wrote, and one NFL doctor told me later that he agreed.
But that doctor also raised a point I had not thought of: Maybe some athletes don't want to know if they're playing with fire. Maybe they are so comfortable with taking risks that they simply don't care to be made aware of them. Maybe that's why there is no clamor among players for this type of testing.
I suspect the good doctor is right.
I thought about that conversation upon learning of Derrick Thomas' premature death, at the age of 33. I did not know Thomas, but this we can say about the loss of this well-respected, well-loved NFL player: He is only the latest athlete to take one risk too many.
Thomas was paralyzed in a car accident, not on the football field. But the underlying behavior is the same. One of the greatest speed rushers in NFL history was driving too fast in an icy snowstorm, weaving through traffic at more than 70 miles an hour, and without a seat belt. No doubt he felt that he could handle the situation, just as the Charlotte Hornets' Bobby Phills believed his Jeff Gordon impression would not end his life.
This is not to say Thomas had some sort of problem, as society defines these things. On the contrary, athletes don't become great athletes by following the rules. They push the limits, test themselves, go where others have not gone -- and that behavior usually extends beyond the playing field. They are keenly aware that they cannot live their lives in fear, unless they want to become accountants or bus boys.
The incident involving Thomas, if anything, was mundane for an athlete whose career was based on emotion and aggression. How many of us have driven too fast on winter roads in a hurry to get somewhere?
The news of the death hit agent Leigh Steinberg hard. Recently, doctors in Miami where Thomas was rehabilitating after surgery to address his broken spine and neck had given him a better chance of walking again.
"It's strange and surrealistic because Derrick was totally committed to rehabilitation," said Steinberg, who had worked with Thomas for 10 years. "He was putting every ounce of energy into walking again and he was determined to get into great physical shape."
No doubt, Thomas knew how to beat the odds. After all, he's an athlete.
The decisions that players make sometimes befuddle us. We wonder why Steve Young would want to go back onto a football field with a brain akin to a bruised apple. We wonder why Peter Warrick would endanger his Heisman Trophy prospects by fraudulently taking some clothes in a department store where everyone knows everything is on videotape.
We wonder why NBA players continue to sleep around recklessly on the road, as if Magic Johnson's contraction of HIV meant nothing. We wonder why 12 NBA players reportedly tested positive for marijuana during training camp when all of them were told they would be tested.
Sure, it's arrogance. Stupidity, even. But I will submit that the behavior of many elite athletes is more calculated than that -- that they believe living on the edge keeps them sharp. Even in the case of model citizen-athletes like Thomas, who was NFL Man of the Year for his charity work, they are most comfortable when they put everything on the line in the most challenging of circumstances.
That is why Michael Jordan gave up basketball for baseball, and why he is now risking his reputation as a god by stepping into the front office with the Washington Wizards. My guess is that he won't have any more luck figuring out salary caps than he did curve balls, but I understand and respect his desire to test his personal limits.
The NCAA and professional sports leagues are so freaked out about gambling because, well, athletes are gamblers. That is their mentality. They take wild shots, swing for the fences, and look for the huge payoff. The greater the odds, the more enticing the opportunity. And their bodies are their capital -- to be thrown around freely, like $100 bills in a late-night poker game.
Derrick Thomas lost this hand and, sadly, it proved to be fatal.
Tom Farrey is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
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