NFL star tires of risking health for our entertainment

Rashard Mendenhall kind of wanted to disappear, he told the world this past Sunday.

He’s 26 and, until lately, he had been an NFL running back at the Arizona Cardinals. He’s well-respected and a good deal sharper than the average 220-pounder condemned to a decade or so of clattering into a brick wall of linemen and linebackers.

(It does behove me to point out for the sake of balance that the workings of his brain did throw up a couple of kinks when he went on a rant about the September 11 attacks on Twitter almost three years ago.) Mendenhall was in that enviable position of being a free agent who could set himself up for a life free of financial troubles, if nothing else.

Admittedly he wasn’t among the upper echelon of coveted, available players but, then again, the running back of the species runs a fine line between domination and implosion. In the past season, Knowshon Moreno enjoyed a renaissance for the Denver Broncos while other superior players flatlined. It’s never a wise course of action to underestimate any of them.

But Mendenhall walked away and did so eloquently, penning a great piece for the Huffington Post, explaining to us mere mortals why a 26-year-old running back walked away from a potentially lucrative pay day and decided to focus on something scientists commonly refer to as ’happiness’.

“I decided not to hold a press conference,” Mendenhall wrote, “because I didn’t want to have to say things that were cliché. I’ve done enough of that since I’ve been playing football. I actually didn’t really plan on saying anything about my retirement at all. I just kind of wanted to disappear.”

He’s off to do a spot of writing and there’s nothing any of us can do to save him from that awful fate. But at least he’ll be dealing with much less hassle — except maybe the odd deadline laced with caffeine.

The same mentality which misunderstands what the athlete deserves influenced that furore over Wayne Rooney and the easily digestible figure of £300,000 a week. There was no nuance to the criticism. There was no taking into account the finer points of the deal. Yeah, maybe in a perfect world, he’d be paid according to his talent — whether that be fading or just going through a lull. But no, Rooney is now the dreaded ‘Face of the Organisation’ — as they call it in the US — and he is the sole marketable symbol with a pulse at United.

Until he reaches his early 30s, Rooney will be dragged from Thai pillar to Indonesian post, smiling for cameras and flaunting Nike gear until he’s blue in that unique face he carries around.

I’d rather he gets paid enough to raise the entire ship than a situation where the Glazers pocket the cash for themselves.

What’s the point in stressing about Rooney or any of the big wads flung around sport?

Isn’t it a little easier to stomach that someone who can produce that rewatchable-for-eternity overhead kick is making the money we want rather than any of those unscrupulous money managers who hide in tall buildings?

Any of us who has ever imagined ourselves as supreme athletes never factor in the determination required to make it all applicable. And as much as we yearn for the limelight — never more so than in the selfie age, me included — we have no idea how horrendous the glare can be.

Ask Rashard. “Imagine having a job where you’re always on duty, and can never fully relax or you just may drown,” he said.

“Having to fight through waves and currents of praise and criticism, but mostly hate. I can’t even count how many times I’ve been called a ‘dumb nigger’.”

That’s as sad as it is inevitable and we’re going to need more than the Rashard Mendenhalls of this world to rid our sports of that latter scourge.

He does, however, make an equally serious point when it comes to what we expect of athletes. I couldn’t agree more with him when he insists on his allegiance to the professionalism of being an athlete.

“But I am not an entertainer,” he adds. “I no longer wish to put my body at risk for the sake of entertainment. I think about the rest of my life and I want to live it with much quality. And physically, I am grateful that I can walk away feeling as good as I did when I stepped into it.”

Many of the guys who fill our weekends with entertainment and our Monday mornings with arguments and banter, I really don’t think get paid enough.

* Twitter: JohnWRiordan