Taking the Good with the Bad

Los Angeles Ram's wide receiver, Stedman Bailey, will be putting on a different uniform this season, trading in his helmet for a whistle. After suffering two gun shot wounds to the head last November, the All-American has decided to take more time to recover and will be doing so as a student assistant coach at his alma mater, West Virginia University. 

Courtesy of Foxsports.com

In between practices, Bailey will be studying more than just plays, as he heads back to the classroom to finish his bachelor's degree. Rams head coach, Jeff Fisher provided encouragement in a recent statement: "We couldn't be happier for Stedman and this opportunity he has to complete his degree and join West Virginia's coaching staff."

We rarely see athletes having patience when it comes to injury recovery. Coming from personal experience, I know my first question in the doctor's office was always, "So when can I return to the track?"

This is a refreshing change of pace and I applaud Stedman for taking the good with the bad. He has said numerous times his NFL career is not over. By taking this break, and finishing something he once started, will only make him a better athlete in the long run. 

And how about the example is he setting? Football injuries, in particular, have been making more and more headlines over the past year with a growing concern about the dangerous sport. So now we see a football player making the decision to sideline himself a little bit longer to be as healthy as possible before returning to his rough sport. 

With all the recent gun violence in the news, we finally can take a breath and thank Stedman Bailey for showing us that sometimes bad things happen to us, but they don't all have to mean there is a dead end.