Please Stay Focused
Hear it here!
There has been a couple of incidents lately that serve as wake-up calls that deserve our focus.
Both deal with the world of pro football and both involve driving automobiles.
Kyle Shanahan, the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers was involved in a serious head-on car accident near his home in Palo Alto, California and former quarterback, now broadcaster, Tony Romo, was arrested in Milwaukee on suspicion of operating a vehicle while intoxicated.
In Shanahan’s case, the episode was kept a secret for almost two weeks.
This is rare in today’s world when a high-profile public figure becomes a story if he or she looks cross-eyed at another person. But the 46-year old coach who suffered scary injuries remained out of the public spotlight for quite a while. The team never said a word, the reporters who covered the club didn’t know about it, and those reporters who scour police blotters were ignorant of the accident and the detail of Shanahan’s injuries. They included a severe concussion, a broken left hand, a broken nose, three broken ribs, and facial cuts near his right eye that required more than 40 stitches. The driver of the other car, a 21-year old woman reported no injuries.
That’s not a fender-bender. Police officers on the scene chose not to issue a citation or file charges stating that neither driver was at fault. But when the news of the accident finally came out, the head coach held a media session to make clear that the crash was entirely his fault.
Actually, the report was later changed to assign blame to the young woman. Shanahan was vehement in claiming that he hit her, then gave a full version of the events that led up to the collision. This was not an auto accident due to speed, which for the most part, factors behind most crashes. He was going 20 miles an hour and was not distracted by being on his mobile phone. But he had dropped his phone, and it got stuck in one of his seats after dropping from his lap. He took his eyes off the road for a matter of seconds and as he was coming up, the airbags hit him in his face and was gashed by his visor. Despite the lack of speed involved, Shanahan said he will never forget how violent it was. He is recovering and makes appearances at the 49ers training camp in brief fashion.
The story made me think, think of how many times we’ve heard all the admonitions of the evils of being careless when we’ve been behind the wheel. We all know how doing things while driving can and do distract us. We can be eating something or using our phone in some way. That has become the main cause of distraction when we’re driving. We can be talking, holding the phone with one hand, even worse, texting, sending messages which force us to glance away from the road. What if the subject of the call or exchange becomes stressful? Anything that cuts into the concentration that is paramount when driving at any speed, with cars in front, behind and next to us on both sides. When I saw what caused the crash in Shanahan’s case, I realized how often the simple act of losing control of your phone occurs. We’ve all been aware by warnings, many times over, of the dangers of doing anything while driving that take our attention off the mission at hand.
But for some reason the story of a serious accident involving someone I’ve known who may be the last person to be reckless, is a wakeup call and then some.
As for the Tony Romo story, arrested for driving while intoxicated is a movie we’ve seen before.
We all realize it happens too often and is a familiar tale. An athlete, or an ex-athlete, is pulled over and can’t pass a sobriety test.
Of course, it also happens to thousands more who have nothing to do with sports. Romo, who is 46, the same age as Kyle Shanahan, was pulled over after he allegedly illegally crossed over a gore area which is the triangular space located between a highway and an entrance or exit ramp. It is marked by solid white lines which serve as a safety buffer. The arrest took place in Milwaukee after Romo competed in a golf tournament. Wisconsin is where the ex-Dallas Cowboys quarterback grew up and reportedly told officers he was on his way to visit “grandma and grandpa”. He was taken into custody after performing poorly when he was given a field-sobriety test according to reports. Body-cam footage allegedly noted an open container of alcohol in his vehicle.
After a 13-year career in the NFL, Romo entered the broadcasting business where he quickly became a successful, widely-praised expert-analyst, where he teamed up with Jim Nantz on CBS Sports on their lead team, working the network’s biggest games. He also became the highest paid network football broadcaster, at the time, earning a reportedly $17 to 18 million per year.
For years, viewers and critics alike reveled at Tony Romo’s on-air style and his ability to analyze and entertain. But in the past few years, his performance has diminished and a lack of preparation has been apparent to many, including this correspondent. It’s a similar curve to his career as a quarterback: impressive early, then a tapering off. CBS quickly put Romo on leave for further notice and wasted little time installing J.J. Watt into the lead chair. Watt, a three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year has already distinguished himself working the network’s second team on NFL telecasts.
The Romo incident may give them an out to their huge contract, and the decrease in his performance. There is always a morals clause in contracts and that could be the key to CBS voiding the rest of his deal or making a settlement. To be clear, CBS has not done anything more than put Romo on leave. They have several options including making a settlement on his contract to bringing him back as a broadcaster. But it would seem that installing Watt as the top expert-analyst won’t change. It’s amazing to me, whenever I hear of a high-profile athlete getting into trouble driving after drinking, why they fail to hire a driver to avoid a worst case scenario.
They certainly can afford it.
In any event, these two incidents, involving Kyle Shanahan and Tony Romo serve as just the latest stories to make us think of why the act of driving calls for the utmost concentration without distractions, eliminating any chance of what we’ve seen in those two stories.
Shanahan
Romo
