Though I am by no means a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, I have always thought highly of the team's QB Ben Roethlisberger. But when I heard the news yesterday that Big Ben had been a motorcycle accident, I said to myself, "What is up with these twenty-something superstar professional athletes and motorcycles?"

These young athlete's bodies are worth millions and millions of dollars-much of this money still dependent on their ability to show up on the field and play for years to come-yet they continually put their bodies at risk. When you hop on a motorcycle, you turn over control to the other drivers that you encounter on the road. Have these fellas not witnessed how poorly people drive in this country? Talking on cell phones, putting on makeup, changing CDs, dealing with the kids, engaging in fellatio, etc... the roads are the last thing people are paying attention to nowadays.

Plus, from what I have seen, they tend to hotdog it. Look at Kellen Winslow II and Jay Williams. Those two were just plain foolish. Who are you trying to impress? You are asked to sign autographs every single time you step out of your homes-people already think that you are cool. What should we expect next from these young athletes? Base Jumping?

I don't know if that was the case with Big Ben, but not wearing a helmet wasn't a very intelligent move on his part. Would he ever step on to Heinz Field without his helmet? No. Then why would he step on to the highway without one? I just don't understand why these young stars put themselves at risk like this. I would never endanger myself like that, and I am a far, far, far cry from being a multi-million dollar professional athlete. Terry Bradshaw is right-you climb on a motorcycle when you retire. Endangering their bodies during the peak of their careers the way Roethlisberger, Williams, and Winslow have is blatantly disrespectful to the people and organizations that have invested so much in them.

I'm not trying to be heartless here. I'm trying to open some eyes. Hopefully, young athletes are taking notice of these awful accidents and we can avoid having to see many more motorcycle tragedies.

That being said, I wish Big Ben a speedy recovery. Even though the injuries sustained seem severe, from what I've seen of the Steelers' signal caller, we should expect him to bounce back quickly.