Jack Dempsey / AP

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger led the team to the NFL title last season.

The forbidden nature of biking is why players such as Yount and Kent have tried to hide their motorcycle-related injuries by making up other excuses for their hurts. Upon being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Yount admitted his 1978 spring training leave from the Milwaukee Brewers to ostensibly take a crack at pro golfing actually was motivated by his tearing ligaments after a motorcycle wreck, and not wanting to tell the team about it. Kent has never really ’fessed up to multiple accusations that he missed the start of the 2002 season not because he fell off of his truck while washing it, but because the then-Giants second baseman fell off his bike while trying to pop wheelies.

(These clauses don’t always apply to coaches, which is why Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren can get his energy back in the offseason riding his motorcycle across the desert.)

Unfortunately, such stupidity and unnecessary risk has not only cut short careers, but also lives. In 1977, Bob Gassoff, an inexperienced rider who witnesses said had had a little to drink, hopped on a bike at a teammate’s party and fatally crashed it a mile later, leaving a pregnant wife who was at the party with him, and shaking up the host, Garry Unger, enough (in Unger’s own words) to turn him born-again Christian.

But what about the fact Monday’s wreck might not have been Roethlisberger’s fault? After all, early indications appear that he might have had the right of way when he hit a car that pulled in front of him. Although that argument might be true, it doesn’t make getting hit on a motorcycle, and its consequences, feel any better.

Ask Tony Twist. The St. Louis Blues enforcer was an experienced biker who, after the 1998-99 season, had once led a 1,500-mile ride for a charity that encourages children to wear helmets while cycling or roller skating. But all it took was a driver pulling out of a parking lot at 10 p.m. not to see Twist coming, and Twist’s career was over — a pelvic injury made sure he didn’t play the 1999-2000 or beyond. Or ride his beloved motorcycle for a while, for that matter. Same thing with Andy Kirby, a NASCAR Busch Series driver, was killed in a crash in his native Nashville, Tenn. Kirby was an experienced rider — in fact, a former motorcycle racing pro.

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If there’s one pro athlete who followed Terry Bradshaw’s sage advice to the letter, even if would have never heard it, it’s Rik Smits. The former Indiana Pacers center has a love of speed, but he confined it to car collecting until retiring in 2000. Since then, he’s become a motorcycle racer. He rides vintage bikes in races grouped by riders’ experience level, with medical personnel available immediately if a crash were to occur. He also wears a helmet.

Certainly, athletes can find plenty of other, non-sports related ways to hurt themselves other than motorcycles. But what’s clear is that motorcycles are a way to guarantee that if you get hurt, the consequences will be severe. So you hotshot athletes who want to look like a tough guy and ride a motorcycle fast — just wait a few years, and join Smits on the racecourse. And put your helmet on.

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