Uncommon Sense: Look, its a bird it's a plane, it's a...football helmet? Monday, October 04, 2010 By Editor Zane Clark - Advertising What does it take to be a professional athlete? We can all agree it takes tremendous effort, hard-work, sweat, and even more pure athletic talent. If you had all that would you not be happy for the opportunity to play and be considered one of the elite athletes of the world? For so many professional athletes this isn't enough. So many care about getting what they want, when they want it. Which is usually right this very instant. Sunday, September 19, New York Giants Running-Back Brandon Jacobs proved this point. During the Giants 38-14 loss Jacobs threw his helmet in frustration. We have seen athletes throw things before, but I personally have never seen anything land ten rows up in the bleachers like Jacobs' helmet did. It's a ridiculous display of unprofessionalism, and some excited fan could have been hurt (although luckily for the fans and Jacobs no one was). To top it all off Jacobs said the helmet accidentally slipped from his hand and flew into the stands rather than into the bench as he had intended.  First, how realistic is it for a professional athlete, one of the most coordinated people in America, to accidentally catapult a 6-8 lbs. football helmet ten rows into the stands from the sidelines of Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. Supposedly the helmet got caught in his leather glove as he threw it at the bench. If that was the case I personally don't think the helmet would have gone as far as it did. As a professional athlete you have hundreds of thousands of people watching your every move including small kids. They want to grow up and be as talented and skilled as the "cool" NFL players they see as they look on in awe with their dads standing or siting beside them. When someone who is supposed to be a role-model makes a stupid decision they sacrifice their professional image and let down many people they have never met.  Most importantly of all the metaphoric little boy could have been severely harmed. If that 6-8 lbs. helmet had come crashing down on his head there could have been major medical problems and if it had hit right, little Johnny could have died. Luckily, for the fans, the NFL, and Brandon Jacobs, no one was actually harmed.  When someone you should be able to look up to and aspire to be like screws up it's hard to look at them the same way. Jacobs was fined ten-thousand dollars for the incident and is very lucky someone wasn't injured and he wasn't sued for a lot more. But it's not just Jacobs, he isn't the only professional athlete who has made the mistake of letting his anger get advantage of him and make him make a stupid decision that not only cost his bank account, but his image dearly. More and more athletes forget the big picture and get caught up in their own little world and forget there are lots of eyes, large and small, staring at them and judging their every move.

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