Now, I remember when I was like 5 years old and someone flipped me off in front of my house. I had no idea what that meant, I just assumed that it was another way to wave. I went in my house to show my mom my new wave and I was cracked upside the skull with a wooden spoon. I realized that the middle finger was a bad thing and didn’t flip anyone off again, in front of her anyway. As I grew older, WWF Wrestling was becoming bigger and bigger; Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Ultimate Warrior, the list goes on and on. I saw someone get hit with a chair one time and it looked like it hurt but he got right back up. So I said, “Let’s give this a try.” One of my friends hit me with a chair and holy crap it hurt like hell. The scary part is I got the weakest kid I knew to hit me with the chair. I could only imagine how much pain I would have been in if my strong friends would have helped out.
As I grew older, I realized that I would not imitate everything I saw on TV. We aren’t talking about watching cartoons and saying if Wiley E. Coyote falls off a cliff and springs back up I can do it too. I knew those cartoons weren’t real and knew I wasn’t an idiot. I’m talking about watching movies and watching guys race bikes and do stunts and race cars at like 150 miles an hour and then when the cops come; they are so slick the cops have no chance to catch them. Now going back up to a few sentences ago, I specified I wasn’t an idiot. I know if I tried any of those stunts or tricks they do, I would either kill myself or end up in jail.
So why in god’s green earth do some of these NFL athletes think they can? If you are a pro football player does that mean you are above the law and can cheat death? Those are super hero abilities if I remember correctly. Or is it that you can do no wrong cause you aren’t the “average” Joe? I have no idea cause I am not a pro athlete. Who knows what is going through these guy’s skulls. Well, we have a few examples of what happens when NFL players watch movies and try the stunts:
Kellen Winslow Jr, TE, Cleveland Browns
Movie: Torque, cycle stunt videos, etc...
Just in case you wanted to know about the movie Torque, it is about motorcycle racing basically and tons and tons of special effects are used in it. I have driven motorcycles and they are blast. Using the minimal amount of experience on the bike, I was still able to figure out that most of the movie had some realistic stunts. They were fun to watch but even the ones that weren’t “enhanced” by a computer I knew I had no chance in hell of even coming close to doing them. Again, I am not an idiot. So with that being said by an “average” Joe, why would someone as talented and rich and athletic as Winslow believe he can? Am I calling him an idiot? Not at all. All I am wondering is why does he think he can do it? He was in a parking lot trying to do tricks and ends up crashing his bike and hurts his knee and is out for the year. Why would you even try those stunts? It just doesn’t make any sense. You are making millions of dollars for one reason and that is playing football so why would you do something that would jeopardize your career? Leave the stunts to the professional stunt men.
Quintin Williams, DB, Miami Dolphins
Movie: Fast and the Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious
Video Games: Need for Speed, Midnight Club, Juiced, etc...
Now when it comes to car racing, not only are there movies out there to watch, there are also video games to play. They are all based on the same concept basically; race cars to make money and stay away from the police. Have I street raced before? No. Have I driven a car really fast before? But of course, who hasn’t. What I’m trying to get at here is there is a difference between driving your car real fast and street racing. Both are dangerous but there is a bit more danger in street racing. Have I played those video games mentioned above? Yes I have and I’ll even admit that I own one of them. I have a blast playing them and yeah I have a kick ass car that can do speeds of over 200mph. Again, I know I am not an idiot. I understand that video games and real life don’t compare. I know what I can do in video games I can’t do in real life. But not to Quintin Williams of course because he is a football player. He was caught street racing last week around Dolphin Stadium at speeds topping 110mph. Again, am I calling him an idiot? No, but I will call him an idiot cause he was drunk while he was street racing. I’ll admit that I’ve driven my tricked out Porsche drunk off my ass but then again I was in the comfort of my own home playing video games. Williams was doing something that could of have cost him his life or the life of another person because he was street racing and he was drunk. He was a professional football player making millions but not anymore cause a day after his arrest, the Dolphins released him.
The belief that NFL football players have that they can do anything happens all the time. If just doesn’t relate to movies and video games though. It goes way beyond that with drugs and assault and jail time and much more. Sometimes it gets a little carried away and nowadays we are seeing more and more sports figures in the news for negative acts off the field than good plays on the field. Both these stories of Winslow and Williams have bad endings that prove it doesn’t matter if you are an “average” Joe or a stud football player in the NFL, what you see on TV isn’t always for you. There is a reason shows put a “Do Not Try This At Home” stamp at the beginning of their shows. It shouldn’t matter who you are or what you do, stick with what you are good at and don’t be an idiot!
These Thoughts and Ponders are part of the free weekly ezine called, Thehooks Book. I am Dr. D and I will chat at you next week.
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Written By: Leo Mendelsohn
