polamalubeast
09-30-2010, 12:43 PM
There's a pretty convincing mountain of evidence that athletes are no different than politicians, rock stars, teachers, bankers, pancake house waitresses, you, me, your neighbor Vinny and possibly everyone sitting under lock and key right now at Rikers Island when it comes to this: We all tend not to learn enough from each other's mistakes and triumphs. We just don't.
So maybe it's wishful thinking to imagine that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has spent his four-game NFL suspension diligently taking notes on Michael Vick's career renaissance, now that Roethlisberger is the next athlete coming down the disgrace-to-"redemption" conveyor belt and is about to get spat back into public life.
[+] EnlargeScott Cunningham/Getty Images
With his star on the upswing, Michael Vick has said the right things.
Vick's comeback with the Philadelphia Eagles isn't some redemption story as much as it's a case study about being a star interrupted or, more accurately, a man gone overboard. And the same is true of Roethlisberger, a two-time Super Bowl champion-turned-recovering lout who will report back to work Monday to a Pittsburgh Steelers team that could be 4-0 without him if it beats division archrival Baltimore on Sunday at Heinz Field. The Steelers' startling success -- one and a half games of it achieved with fourth-string quarterback Charlie Batch -- has led to a spate of taunting headlines like, "Ben Who?"
The idea that either Vick or Roethlisberger could take a hiatus from the NFL and return to his previous level of play isn't all that outrageous considering how good they were. But the possibility that either of them could change substantially as human beings -- at least enough to limbo under the low-hanging bar of not getting in trouble again -- now, that's where their stories intersect and get interesting.
There's a lot Roethlisberger could learn from Vick's resurrection -- starting with how to deal with success, and not just contempt.
Both Vick and Roethlisberger have blamed the onset of fame, stardom and money at too young an age for distorting them. That old lament. It's still too soon to say with complete confidence that Vick has made genuine and wholesale change as a person just because he's now 2-0 and he's wrestled the quarterback job away from planned Philadelphia starter Kevin Kolb heading into Sunday's game against the Redskins and ex-Eagle quarterback Donovan McNabb. (McNabb is making his first return to Philly since the Eagles traded him to Washington. His rap sheet only includes failing to win the Eagles a Super Bowl.)
read more
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?id=5633080
So maybe it's wishful thinking to imagine that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has spent his four-game NFL suspension diligently taking notes on Michael Vick's career renaissance, now that Roethlisberger is the next athlete coming down the disgrace-to-"redemption" conveyor belt and is about to get spat back into public life.
[+] EnlargeScott Cunningham/Getty Images
With his star on the upswing, Michael Vick has said the right things.
Vick's comeback with the Philadelphia Eagles isn't some redemption story as much as it's a case study about being a star interrupted or, more accurately, a man gone overboard. And the same is true of Roethlisberger, a two-time Super Bowl champion-turned-recovering lout who will report back to work Monday to a Pittsburgh Steelers team that could be 4-0 without him if it beats division archrival Baltimore on Sunday at Heinz Field. The Steelers' startling success -- one and a half games of it achieved with fourth-string quarterback Charlie Batch -- has led to a spate of taunting headlines like, "Ben Who?"
The idea that either Vick or Roethlisberger could take a hiatus from the NFL and return to his previous level of play isn't all that outrageous considering how good they were. But the possibility that either of them could change substantially as human beings -- at least enough to limbo under the low-hanging bar of not getting in trouble again -- now, that's where their stories intersect and get interesting.
There's a lot Roethlisberger could learn from Vick's resurrection -- starting with how to deal with success, and not just contempt.
Both Vick and Roethlisberger have blamed the onset of fame, stardom and money at too young an age for distorting them. That old lament. It's still too soon to say with complete confidence that Vick has made genuine and wholesale change as a person just because he's now 2-0 and he's wrestled the quarterback job away from planned Philadelphia starter Kevin Kolb heading into Sunday's game against the Redskins and ex-Eagle quarterback Donovan McNabb. (McNabb is making his first return to Philly since the Eagles traded him to Washington. His rap sheet only includes failing to win the Eagles a Super Bowl.)
read more
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?id=5633080