Charlie Davies Is 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.

A pretty somber and sobering reminder of just how quickly a life can be changed.