Guest Blog by Michael Krewina
“I want to play a game. For years now you have lived vicariously through the talent you have been blessed with. You have broken laws, betrayed the ones closest to you, and carelessly put the lives of yourself and others in danger because you felt you could not be stopped. You are a superstar athlete, one who lives above the rest, but not anymore. Today, we change that.” This would best describe the fate of recently released Plaxico Burress had his life resembled one of the classic “Saw” movies, in which, for those of you unfamiliar, a serial killer known as Jigsaw kidnaps people who are wasting their lives and squandering their opportunities to pit them in a life or death scenario in hopes of changing their outlook on the lives they live. Plaxico had it all. He was a God-gifted athlete, a hero in New York and the recipient of a Super Bowl Championship ring in which he caught the winning touchdown.
How then, did he take his life for granted? Like many other professional athletes, it was off the field. He thought he could live above the law and at the expense of his thigh, he realized he could not. Plaxico was released this past week after serving a 22 month sentence on gun possession and upon exit, vowed he was ready to resume and revitalize his career as a professional football player. Now many people will frown on this and think that in his mid-30’s, after being away from the sport for two years, a comeback would be impossible. But I implore you my friends, look deeper than the surface. There is a very good chance Plaxico can return to his Pro-Bowl self, but don’t believe me just yet, let me tell you why.
In professional sports, there are two kinds of athletes: The ones who are supremely talented and used their pure talent to get to the highest level, and the less talented, hardest working athletes you will ever meet in your life. Rarely you find a highly gifted hard working athlete (now this is not saying these athletes do not work hard, as it does take a great deal of hard work for ANYONE to get to that level, I am merely saying that they do not work to their fullest potential because in all honestly, they never needed to.). What does this have to do with Plaxico you might ask? He was a purely gifted athlete who always made it on talent more than hard work, but talent at this point in his life will not lead him to the Promised Land anymore. There are certain criteria he needs to meet to create a Michael Vick-like comeback:
1. He needs to be a changed man coming out of prison, and early indications tell me that he is.
2. He needs to be devoted to making a comeback, which he has been vowing since the day he went into prison.
3. He needs to erase the part of himself that could do no wrong prior to the incarceration, which if he can do that half as well as Vick, he will be alright.
Now let’s put this intervention into some light; what went into prison was a phenomenal wide receiver that was immensely talented and knew it. He thought he made it, and no matter his actions, no one could ever knock him off his throne. He never worked to his full potential because of his success, and eventually his downfall was the product of a botched, cocky attitude.
Now the man coming out of prison very possibly, is the same figure who is immensely talented that can succeed in the NFL. But subtract the attitude and replace it with a feeling of redemption. This feeling of redemption, with the promise of a return to the NFL has the potential to bring a less talented persons work ethic to an immensely talented person who has never had one before. The result? Plaxico finally working to uncover his true potential, which even with half his 30’s in the rear view mirror, still is enough to be a great wide receiver at least for the next handful of years..
I expect big things from Plax, and I hope the people who don’t can handle being wrong. As the famous serial killer Jigsaw would say, “Play your heart out or shrink into the shadows forever, the choice is yours.”
…….Or something like that….. you get the point.
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