You Should Wear a Helmet When You Ride Me!

So Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was hospitalized with head injuries this morning after a motorcycle accident in Pittsburgh. Any wire service summary can fill in the details, but I doubt it can beat the Post-Gazette's lurid bystander narratives or their depth of prior reporting on the joint subjects of Ben Roethlisberger and not wearing helmets while motorcycling.

Anyway, if Big Ben sees the light and/or has a good PR manager I'm sure he'll be appearing soon enough in elementary school auditoria across Western Pennsylvania to discuss proper helmet usage. I admit my own first reaction to the story was pretty shallow, though: something along the lines of "Yes yes, but what news of his thumbs and knees?" With luck they'll put his head back together in time for the next football season; without luck I suppose he can prematurely follow other past Steelers QBs into the netherworld of little-seen cable TV programming, such as hunting and fishing shows or The Cannonball Run. Here's hoping for the best. God knows the Pirates can't support all the region's sports-related hopes and fears, whether or not they've finally won a road series.