Today, U.S. striker Charlie Davies is just one of us, just trying to cope

To be well-known and relatively wealthy. To essentially have a support staff to manage many of the mundane chores of life. To be toasted, heralded and frequently reminded to "Put your wallet away, your money’s no good here!" To live large like a rock star.

Oh, it’s not all strawberries and lollipops, I suppose. There’s some pressure and a burden of expectation attached to it all. And woe is the public figure who runs afoul of the law or the spiteful spouse. Step too far out of line and you run the risk of crucifixion in the court of public opinion.

Then again, athletes aren’t in a box on that stuff. They can always walk away from it all.

Bottom line, they live a fairly privileged existence. Their days and nights don’t often resemble ours, as we play out the lives of ticky tacky, in houses that all look just the same.

Unless you’re Charlie Davies right now.

Today, you’re just one of us.

Today, Charlie Davies is just a human being like any of us, doing what some of us sometimes must: negotiating an overwhelming cascade of fears, thoughts and emotions.

Today Davies lies in ICU with a mangled leg, terrible internal injuries, various other physical ailments and a career that may be in tatters. And then there’s an impending emotional undertow that, God willing, few of us will ever deal with.

He was in car with someone who died. No matter what the circumstances – and I’m sure we’ll know more later – it must be a terrible burden.

So today, Charlie Davies is a man whose future is cloudy. What he’ll be doing for work in 12 or 24 months, he can only hope for and guess about right now.

In his case, there's an extra layer of tangled introspection ahead: I'm sure that he's happy to be alive, but his head is surely spinning with those difficult questions, something along the lines of "Why her and not me?"

Pro athletes live an entirely different existence, indeed – most of the time. There are times, clearly, when they aren’t so unlike the rest of us, men brought to our knees, at the mercy of our doubts, regrets and fears.