MVN - Most Valuable Network

One Fan’s Reaction to Leonard Little’s Agony

Certainly any NFL fan is familiar with Leonard Little, the dynamic defensive end of the St. Louis Rams. Drafted in 1998, from 2001 to 2006 this former middle linebacker at Tennessee was a terror, racking up 73 1/2 sacks in regular season play and at least another 5 sacks in the playoffs. He was an All-Pro in 2003 and was chosen for the Pro Bowl that year. A toe injury that eventually required surgery limited his playing time in 2007, but both he and the Rams are expecting a big comeback from him in 2008, especially with the addition of number one draft pick Chris Long as a pass rushing threat at right end.

Despite his illustrious record on the field with the Rams, it’s a wonder that he is with the team at all. You see, there is more to write about Little than football.

Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently wrote a column about Little’s struggles off the football field. He followed up that column with another one a week later that focused mainly on Burwell’s thoughts about Little and the public reaction to what Little had done. I would like to add my own thoughts to the discussion.

Just in case you don’t know or don’t remember what happened, let me briefly summarize. After a birthday party in his honor on October 19, 1998, Little, in Burwell’s words, “got into his SUV after a night of drinking and partying, broadsided the car of a suburban housewife and mother, ended her life, ruined her family’s life and sent himself reeling into his own decade-long private hell on Earth.” Quite a statement. And as if that weren’t enough, Little was arrested again in 2004 for drunk driving and speeding, seeming to tell people by his actions that he was unaffected by the tragedy that occurred six years earlier and that he certainly had not learned any lessons from it, least of all the need to moderate his drinking and not drink and drive. However, a jury acquitted him on the DUI charge, finding him guilty only of speeding. The explanation for the acquittal centered around the fact that two officers on the scene gave conflicting views of the arresting officer’s observation that Little was drunk.

The Rams organization was heavily criticized for not releasing or at least trading Little after the first incident, for which he did some jail time, had to perform community service, and was suspended by the NFL for eight games. Public opinion, as one might expect, was also extremely sympathetic to the victim’s family and pilloried Little in the media and on the street every chance it got. The outcry against him only intensified after the second incident. Further fueling the flames of public antipathy was the perception that Little has received special treatment from the legal system because he is a football player.

Burwell’s columns caused me to think about two widely separate occurrences in my own life that, each in their own way, relate to Little’s situation. The first one happened in 1971, when I was stationed at an Air Force base in northeastern Mississippi. I was living in a small house that I rented from a cotton and soybean farmer, who lived with his wife and son next door. The son, nicknamed Junior, was about 18 at the time and a thoroughly likeable young man, even though he was a big Saints and Archie Manning fan. To make a little extra money, Junior got a job driving a school bus to and from the town’s lone elementary school. One afternoon, a few students on his bus got off at their usual stop. Instead of going to the side of the street like the rest, one of the students walked in front of the bus. Junior never saw the child and put the bus into first gear. The child was killed.

I saw Junior later that same day. His parents told me what had happened and that Junior was inconsolable. Indeed he was. Crushed might be the better word. As I think about the whole thing now, more than thirty-five years later, a chill runs up my spine. Junior remained inconsolable for the rest of the two years that I was there. I never found out what happened to him. I worry that the demon of this event has lived with him all his life. I think that this is what Leonard Little has been feeling.

The second occurrence was of a more personal nature. My previous wife, a woman to whom I was married for 23 years, suffered from alcoholism. Now, let me say that, both from training and personal belief, I regard alcoholism as a disease, not something an individual chooses to do. There isn’t enough space here to explain why, so just go with me on that. She drank and drove, usually to the local package store and back home, always while I was working. I eventually took her car keys from her after she had promised several times to never do it again. Ironically, while she struggled against alcoholism almost all of her adult life, her drinking accelerated after our son was killed in a single car accident after he had been drinking at a party. She died in 2002 directly as a result of long-term alcohol abuse. That, I believe, is a fate that Leonard Little also struggles against.

So, you see, I can’t look at the Little case dispassionately, as if he was just another football player mired in legal and personal problems. Just as I felt for Junior, and for the family of the child who was accidentally killed, and for my wife of so many years, I feel for Leonard Little. What he did was wrong, and tragic, and stupid, but I believe that he is a victim in all of this as well. I don’t know if Little suffers from alcoholism as such, but he seems at the very least to have a problem with drinking. Alcohol affects exactly those parts of the brain that mediate skills like judgment, planning, and foresight. It’s easy for me to understand why someone who has been drinking thinks that he can drive safely home.

I truly hope that Leonard Little has turned the corner and is sincere both in his contrition and his efforts to overcome his problems with alcohol. Right now I believe he is. But his challenge will be to sustain his positive momentum. As I learned from watching my wife’s struggles, it will be a battle that he will fight every day for the rest of his life.

And he will never be alone. His personal demon will see to that.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 1:00 am and is filed under National Football League, Rams Players, New Orleans Saints, Leonard Little, Pro Bowl, St. Louis Rams, NFL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.