Any celebrity scandal, especially those involving acts (or even alleged acts) of deviant sexual behavior will produce armchair psychoanalyzing or dime-store medical speculation that is then trumpeted by the media as gospel. It was only a matter of time with Ben Roethlisberger’s recent troubles that the media, now likely deprived of any developments in his drama for the foreseeable future, would indulge in “expert” opinions of just what exactly was making Roethlisberger do the horrible things he was never actually proven to have done.
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Roethlisberger Head Trauma Latest Scapegoat For Off-Field Behavior
↵↵The first such notable contribution to the nascent trend was a piece in the Denver Post that hypothesized that Roethlisberger is still trying to get over his mother dying when he was 8 years old, a conclusion that’s questionable at best to reach without spending significant time listening to Ben on a therapist’s couch. Now, with Roethlisberger’s forthcoming punishment involving a clinical evaluation, famed/infamous pathologist Cyril Wecht is suggesting head trauma could be at the root of his boorish behavior.↵
↵↵⇥On Nov. 22, the helmeted head of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger met the knee of onrushing Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Derrick Johnson.↵⇥↵⇥The quarterback with two Super Bowl rings wobbled off the field and sat out the next game. Less than four months later, he stood accused of raping a Georgia student in a Milledgeville nightclub, and quiet questions began: Six years in the National Football League, 242 sacks, four serious head traumas -- three on the field and one from a nearly fatal 2006 motorcycle crash -- and two sexual assault allegations after boozy evenings in Nevada and Georgia.↵⇥
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↵I think you know where this is going. While it's been shown that frequent concussions can result in changes in mood and behavior over time, is it really enough to account for the change in Roethlisberger as a player who got in trouble for writing an ↵abbreviation of "Pray for Jesus" on his cleats as a rookie to what some would believe is a rampaging sociopath in a few years time? Surely if that were the case then Trent Green and Troy Aikman would have blazed a trail of wanton criminality years ago. Not to mention, that would be an easy way to eschew personal responsibility, if he were guilty of what he's been accused of.↵
↵↵Of course, linking Roethlisberger’s off-field issues to concussions dovetails nicely with him last season temporarily serving as the inadvertent poster boy for the league’s efforts to protect players from concussions and related head injuries. Unless the impending medical tests can give the NFL anything approaching a definite link, however, don’t expect every player that runs afoul of the law to try to explain away their actions because of lingering effects of a concussion.↵
↵↵(H/T to Busted Coverage)↵
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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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