Saying Goodbye to Samari Rolle

The hardest day in any man’s life is when he has to bid farewell to his youth. A moment where reality and responsibility clash under the pride crumbling weight of aging. For most, it’s the day you realize that wearing certain clothes, chasing certain women, and going to certain bars just wasn’t becoming of your years of experience.

For athletes, its the day when more teams than not say “Thanks, but no thanks.”

And such is the case for Samari Rolle, a classy guy, a really good corner for the Baltimore Ravens, and soon, a likely candidate to be cut by the team.

His story is one of triumph and tragedy. He had a well publicized bout with adult-diagnosed epilepsy, only to return and have a positive impact on the Ravens’ run to the AFC Championship Game. Now, he’s expressing his frustration with being in the dark on the Ravens’ pending decisions.

“If I was 23, 24, or 25 again, then the situation would be different. But I’m a veteran, and I have a family. We would like to know if we need to sell our house in Baltimore and where our kids are going to be going to school. My preference is to be released.”

You can appreciate the class with which Rolle is handling the situation. More concerned with the future of his family, he isn’t taking terrible shots at the organization, but he isn’t lauding his stand with the team either. Professional sports, for the most part, is a young man’s game, and Samari Rolle and countless other veterans around the league have better years behind them than in front of them.

You hate the business part of it, but you understand it. It’s the saying goodbye part that always manages to get us.

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