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  • Lenny P's Insider Tip Sheet

    Friday, June 16, 2006
    Henderson has thoughts of motorcycle 'every day'

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    By Len Pasquarelli
    ESPN.com

    In the wake of the Ben Roethlisberger motorcycle accident, Jamie Henderson fielded dozens of calls from media outlets this week, all of them anxious to know if the Monday incident dredged up haunting memories of the April 3, 2004 wipeout that ended his NFL career after only three seasons and at age 25.


    Blessedly for Henderson, whatever mental computer chip stores the awful memory of the night on which he spun out on rural Kingsbridge Road, near his home in Carrollton, Ga., appears to have been permanently corrupted.


    Then again, Henderson doesn't need the kind of accident Pittsburgh Steelers' star quarterback experienced to comprehend the results of his own accident two years ago. Henderson, 27 now, plumbs the depths of his reality on pretty much a 24/7 basis.

    "No matter how careful you are, it's never going to be careful enough, because you can never tell what someone else on the road is going to do. I mean, that's why they're called 'accidents,' right?"
    Former Jets DB Jamie Henderson

    "Every day, and I mean every day, I think about that motorcycle and what it did to me," conceded Henderson, the Jets' sixth-round choice in the 2001 NFL draft, and a promising defensive back poised to take on a bigger role for then-New York coach Herman Edwards until fate and a shiny, new Kawasaki Ninja short-circuited his ascent up the depth chart. "I think to myself, 'Why did I ever get on that bike? Why?' It's the same thing I asked myself the other day, after I heard about (Roethlisberger). You had me, and you had (former NBA point guard Jay) Williams, and then Kellen Winslow last year. You would think we would all be examples. Bad examples, definitely, but still examples. But guys keep getting up on bikes and guys keep getting hurt. Why?"


    Truth be told, Henderson, like most young athletes knows the answer to his own question. "Yeah, because we all think we're immortal or something," he said. "You know, we act like we're bullet-proof, right?"


    Instead, the candid Henderson is proof positive of the consequences that can result when a person straps himself onto a land rocket.


    A former University of Georgia star, a role model in the close-knit Carrollton community where he had been inducted into the high school hall of fame, a player whose '04 accident moved older Jets teammates to tears, Henderson might not remember the moment that changed his life. But he remembers the few hours before it. He was preparing for the birthday party of his son, Jalen, and confided to a friend that, even though he had purchased the Kawasaki just a month earlier, he was going to sell the bike, and quickly.


    His ride that day, he suggested, would be his last before he taped a "For Sale" sign to the motorcycle. What he knew, Henderson recalled earlier this week, was that the bike was, well, too much bike for him. What he didn't know was that his words would become a self-fulfilling prophecy.


    According to police reports from the incident, Henderson, riding next to another motorcycle, failed to negotiate a curve on Kingsbridge Road, near the Gold-Kist poultry plant, spun out to the side, hit a curb and flipped over the handlebars. His 6-foot-2, 205-pound body came to rest in the grass, nearly 70 yards from the bike. When an emergency medical technician unit arrived, one member recalled being stunned by the lack of outward damage to Henderson's body, just some superficial lacerations and a bruise on his head.


    Internally, though, the Jets' defensive back had suffered severe closed head trauma and a cerebral edema, leaving him in a coma, on a respirator, with a hole in the back of his head where doctors had inserted a catheter to reduce swelling in his brain. Henderson, who wore a helmet during his tragic ride, was heavily sedated and in critical condition.


    "We all thought that he … well, you know," said his mother, Tonya Arnold, who knows all to well what her son's family and friends thought, but can never bring herself to admit just how close he came to dying that night.


    It took months of treatment at the renowned Shepherd Center in Atlanta, months on top of that at a local outpatient treatment center for Henderson to regain most of his motor and speech skills. Neurologists marveled at the relative speed with which Henderson recovered.


    During the investigation of the accident, it was suggested that Henderson was a novice rider, a guy who should never have been on the bike. Henderson denied that this week, insisting he had been riding, at least casually, for 10 years. And acknowledging that, with such experience, he should have known better before he purchased the Kawasaki from a local dealer. There was actually a photo in the local newspaper of Henderson accepting the keys to the bike. It's a picture, quite understandably, that has been removed from Henderson's scrapbook.


    "All the stuff about me being a so-called 'rookie' (rider), it wasn't true," Henderson said. "I knew what I was doing, understood all the risks, better than a lot of people do, and I still did it anyway. But here's the thing, and this is why I had decided to get rid of the bike: No matter how careful you are, it's never going to be careful enough, because you can never tell what someone else on the road is going to do. I mean, that's why they're called 'accidents,' right? The more times you get on that bike without being in an accident, the closer you are to being in one. That's no newsflash."


    Two years after he nearly died, having survived frightful injuries to his brain and a deep coma, the news is significantly better for Henderson. Back at school, and taking five credits in Athens, he will graduate on Aug. 2 with a degree in sports services. How much did Henderson covet that diploma? Well, he took an unwieldy 21-credit workload last semester to accelerate the process.


    After graduation, he would like to perhaps work for the league, or for a franchise or a university, find a job that would put him in touch with players. Maybe recruiting, certainly counseling, something that might allow him to pass on some counsel once in a while. He's got two sons -- Jalen, now 4, and Jamie, 1 -- to support and is ready to move forward.

    "You had me, and you had (former NBA point guard Jay) Williams, and then Kellen Winslow last year. You would think we would all be examples. Bad examples, definitely, but still examples. But guys keep getting up on bikes and guys keep getting hurt. Why?"
    Jamie Henderson

    Remarkably, Henderson has been medically cleared to continue his football career, and he plans to have his agent, Pat Dye Jr., inform teams in the league of that startling fact. Realistically, though, Henderson doesn't expect the phone to ring with some scout on the other end of the line offering him a tryout. The irony is that, with the way the game is played now, Henderson, a combination safety-cornerback, a guy who could hit and run, would be in great demand.


    That said, two years after his accident, Henderson isn't about to feel sorry for himself. He is dealing with the consequences of his actions and he doesn't blame anyone else for what occurred. Life isn't all so bad right now for Henderson, who has just about everything back, save for his football career.


    "By nature, I think I'm a pretty positive and (resilient) person," Henderson said between classes this week. "The reality is that a $10,000 motorcycle cost me millions of dollars. Not the kinds of millions that a guy like Ben (Roethlisberger) will earn, but millions, for sure. But that's the price I paid and that I'll pay every day. I just hope it's a price other guys quit having to pay."

    Around the league



    Chris Henry
    Wide Receiver
    Cincinnati Bengals

    Profile
    2005 SEASON STATISTICS
    Rec Yds TD Avg Long YAC
    31 422 6 13.6 47 58

    • Purchase a lemon off some used-car lot and there are consumer laws to protect you. Draft a lemon, at least character-wise, and it seems there is little a team can do in terms of rectifying its mistake until due process runs its course. That's the sticky predicament in which the Cincinnati Bengals find themselves right now with second-year wide receiver Chris Henry, who has been arrested four times in the past six months. There is little doubt that the Cincinnati organization -- which has no one but itself to blame for selecting Henry, whose college career at West Virginia was marked by problems with the coaching staff, in the first place -- would love to cut ties with the talented but troubled wide receiver. But to do so almost certainly would elicit a grievance from the NFL Players Association. It's hard to fathom Gene Upshaw going to bat too ardently for Henry, but the job of a union is to serve as advocates for its constituents, so you can bet that NFLPA officials will keep a keen eye on how the Bengals proceed with the Henry issue. The team might have to wait until training camp, and until Henry returns to practice, to be able to jettison him. At that point, Cincinnati officials might be able to suggest that Henry was released for "skill" reasons, because he could not make the Bengals' roster. They can't make that claim now because Henry still is rehabilitating from the injury he sustained in the team's wild-card playoff loss to Pittsburgh, and isn't practicing.


    • This time a year ago, St. Louis Rams cornerback Jerametrius Butler was riding pretty high. He had signed a new six-year, $15 million contract in 2004, when the Rams matched a restricted free agent offer sheet from the Washington Redskins, and was coming off a season in which he had posted career highs in tackles (100), interceptions (five) and passes defensed (22). But just as Butler was emerging as one of the league's top young corners, he sustained a season-ending knee injury on the opening day of training camp. And now that he has returned, albeit it while fighting through a recent hamstring problem that sidelined him for last weeks minicamp, things have changed dramatically.

    The Rams have a new head coach, Scott Linehan, and a new defensive coordinator, Jim Haslett. The team signed feisty veteran Fakhir Brown, who played for Haslett in New Orleans, to a five-year, $12 million contract. The Rams used their first-round draft choice in April on another cornerback, Tye Hill of Clemson, who improved every day of minicamp after a relatively sluggish start. Three-year veteran DeJuan Groce, who started 15 games in 2005 when Butler was injured, is back. So is four-year veteran Travis Fisher, who missed the final eight games of the '05 season himself, but is said to have looked very good in spring workouts. And the staff is trying to find playing time for the raw but physically-gifted Ron Bartell, a combination defensive back who started seven games as a rookie last season. Suddenly the Rams' cornerback depth chart is a lot more crowded than it was last summer and, while Butler remains convinced he will win the starting job on the left side, his future in St. Louis is a lot more clouded than it was entering last year's training camp.


    • Although it's a little out of character for New England coach Bill Belichick to not have an experienced backup quarterback on the roster, the Patriots aren't ready yet to make a move to add one. For now, the club wants to continue to evaluate second-year veteran Matt Cassel, the 2005 seventh-rounder who threw just 24 passes as a rookie, but who performed well in the spring minicamps and organized activities. The Patriots might yet add a free agent like Jay Fiedler but, if the coaches are comfortable with Cassel as the No. 2 guy on the depth chart, New England might not do anything.


    • Philadelphia officials feel that left offensive tackle William Thomas (formerly "Tra," until he decided this spring to go with his given first name) will be ready for the start of training camp, but there has to be some concern that the eight-year veteran is being treated with blood thinners again to address potential blood clots. Thomas, who has been sidelined of late because of the recurring problem, missed much of training camp last summer because of similar issues and the Eagles didn't get him back on the field until late in the preseason. The only upside to Thomas' recent absence is that it has provided second-round draft choice Winston Justice of USC to get some work on the left side. Justice could go into the season as the top backup to both Thomas and right tackle Jon Runyan.


    • Since most of the attention was directed toward Reggie Bush and his efforts to wear uniform No. 5 in his debut season with the New Orleans Saints, people forget that the former Southern California tailback and Heisman Trophy winner wasn't the only NFL player trying to change the league's numbering system this spring. A former Saints star, center LeCharles Bentley, who signed with his hometown Cleveland Browns this spring as an unrestricted free agent, had petitioned the NFL to allow him to wear No. 00. The proposed switch was meant to honor former Oakland Raiders center Jim Otto, a hero to Bentley when he was growing up, and the last man to wear the unusual number. It wasn't surprising, of course, when the NFL decided not to alter its numbering system for this season. What was surprising was the reaction by Otto this week to Bentley's proposal. Otto called the Bentley proposal "ridiculous," but that wasn't all he had to say about it. "To let him wear my number, one that I built into a legacy … all it takes is one ounce of (cocaine) up his nose and that legacy is gone," Otto said. "I don't know who he is. I played 15 years with the Raiders. He played what, three or four years in New Orleans? What kind of legacy would he give double-zero? I don't think he should wear it and I don't think anyone in the NFL should wear it."


    • Speaking of Bush, he continues to do all the right things to endear himself to the citizens of New Orleans. This week, Bush, in conjunction with adidas, donated $86,000 to help refurbish the city's historic Tad Gormley Stadium. The facility is typically home to 20 high school teams from Orleans Parish, but the field and its electrical system where destroyed by Hurricane Katrina last summer. The donation by Bush will allow the city to re-sod the field, and to prepare for what officials hope will be the installation of a new artificial FieldTurf surface next year. While the stadium will retain its name, the surface will now be called "Reggie Bush Field." The speedy tailback, all but recovered from the hamstring injury that sidelined him for some of the Saints' offseason work, remains anxious to commence his contract negotiations, but the substantive bargaining has yet to begin.


    Michael Vick
    Quarterback
    Atlanta Falcons

    Profile
    2005 SEASON STATISTICS
    Att Comp Yds TD Int Rat
    387 214 2211 15 13 73.1

    • Stat of the week: In defending his often ordinary passing statistics, supporters of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick typically point to his record as a starter, a glittering 31-19-1 mark in five seasons with the team. But just as the wondrously gifted Vick must enhance his passing numbers, he must also improve his record against winning teams. Vick has an impressive .800 winning mark, a 24-6 record against teams that either had a losing record or were at .500 when he played them. Against teams with a winning record, he is just 7-13-1, for a .357 success rate.


    • Punts: Baltimore officials and coaches are growing increasingly miffed at the amount of practice time that second-year wide receiver Mark Clayton has missed this spring because of hamstring problems. The Ravens' first-round choice in 2005 is coming off a disappointing rookie campaign. … The Chicago Bears apparently have no intention of upgrading the contract of Pro Bowl cornerback Nathan Vasher, who still has two years remaining on the deal he signed as a rookie in 2004. Vasher has stopped attending the club's voluntary workouts. … The Falcons recently worked out veteran kicker Morten Andersen, the second-leading scorer in NFL history. Andersen, who will be 46 in August, has not kicked in the league since 2004. But with no veteran kickers on the roster, the Falcons were doing some due diligence, in case they have to send out an SOS for a proven placement specialist. Andersen still resides in the Atlanta area. … Seattle coaches were impressed this week with the performance of second-year veteran Chris Spencer, who got some work at guard. Spencer was drafted in the first round in 2005 as the eventual replacement for center Robbie Tobeck. … The Saints are monitoring the situation in San Diego with veteran linebacker Donnie Edwards, who remains on the trading block. New Orleans might not be inclined to trade for Edwards right now, but would make a quick call if he were released.


    • The last word: "I think we were all wondering if Coach (Tom Coughlin) gave it to him." -- New York Giants center Shaun O'Hara, after tight end Jeremy Shockey, who had skipped all of the team's voluntary offseason work, arrived for a mandatory minicamp this week sporting a freshly blackened left eye.

    Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com. To check out Len's chat archive, click here . **** For Mdfan ****

  • #2
    Thanks BBF!

    Appreciate the effort.

    Comment


    • #3
      Jim Otto cracks me up, like it's his number to decided who can wear it. It's not like he's even the most memorbale guy to wear it, Ken Burroughs wore it for the oilers in the early eighties. Go back to selling hamburgers and forget about the "legacy of "00"

      Comment


      • #4
        Thanks Bowie. I've missed reading this. It's nice to have you aboard.
        FRESH > cancer

        I hate everything the Cowboys stand for. If you think they are America's team, then you support everything that is wrong with America. The excess, the greed, the lack of maturity, the lack of responsibility, the lack of control. - Luzinski's Gut

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