Ben Roethlisberger, Motorcycles and Athletic Adventurous Sons

In last Friday's phone call from my son we were discussing both being unusually out of touch about sports.

We reassured ourselves that we weren't totally out of the loop by talking about what NFL teams had signed various NCAA players. He had a Vince Young story and I had a Matt Leinart story - then I used blogging as my excuse and said when football season started I'd have to quit blogging or write about sports more often.

"Mom, you can't do that" he said - apparently setting some kind of limits on what opinions or information one blogs about - which illustrates that he never reads them - or mine at least. Otherwise he'd know I can - and do.

We then talked about him not cross-country biking so much since he's replaced the Audi with a Grand Cherokee - which he takes off-roading. Although I rolled my eyes about this, privately I worry less about it than the kind of alpine skiing he does - and I've always worried that he'd get a motorcycle.

Today when the Steelers; Ben Roethlisberger, who's a few years younger than my son was badly hurt in a motorcycle crash - I swear my heart stopped. And I thought - you know - there but for the grace of God . . .

Coach Bill Cowher has lectured Roethlisberger about his habit of riding without a helmet - and since Cowher can intimidate the hell out of some tough cookies I'm hoping this had an effect and it turns out that helmet was on board at the time of the accident.

Then again, I've seen another athletic and self-assured young man get lectured by another intimidating  older guy and sometimes the effect was less than hoped for.

In Ben's case, he's at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh, in serious but stable condition - but under the knife of a trauma surgeon so we're not talking a skinned knee.

Say a little prayer for him - and his mom too. And while you're at it, you might want to include all moms of confident, adventurous, athletic sons. We never get used to their believing themselves invincible.

Although each of us hopes and pray that they really are.

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..Linking to filtering craig, Wizbang Sports, Baseball Crank, Dave in Boca