Before I step onto my soapbox, I would like to make it known that I was once 23 years-old and have done several stupid things in my life that I am very ashamed of.
With the above disclaimer now out of the way, we are starting to see more details come in about the early Saturday morning stabbing of Pittsburgh Steelers second-year tackle Mike Adams during an attempted carjacking.
A few of the initial reports stated that the incident might have taken place outside of Adams\’ residence, but according to WTAE-TV, Pittsburgh Police said Adams reported that he was standing near his parked truck in the 1700 block of Carson St. at around 3:00 a.m. when he was confronted by his three armed attackers.
Adams, who reportedly didn\’t have his truck keys with him during the attempted carjacking, made his way over to the Cambod-Ican Kitchen restaurant at the corner of Carson and South 17th streets after being stabbed, and that is where he was picked up by the paramedics after a pedestrian flagged down a police officer.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Adams didn\’t have his keys on him because he left them with the Nakama Japanese Steakhouse valet service which reportedly shut down at midnight. According to my own research, Adams only lives a few blocks away from where the incident took place and could have easily walked home had he wanted to.
Also, according to Twitter user @JonBabs53, he spotted Adams at a bar three hours prior to the stabbing taking place; however, he doesn\’t say which bar it was, and he doesn\’t say if Adams was drinking at the time. Being as Nakama is rumored to be a place often frequented by several Steelers players late at night, and since Adams left his truck with their valet service, it\’s easy to speculate that Nakama very well could\’ve been his watering hole of choice Friday night and into Saturday morning.
Now, I am well aware about the fact NFL players don\’t have curfews, and have nothing against anyone going out for a couple of cocktails every now and again, but like my old man used to tell me when I was a kid, “Nothing good usually happens when you\’re out on the streets after midnight.” In the case of Adams, he was literally on the streets three hours after midnight.
I know for a fact Adams won\’t be the last current Steelers player who will be out on the town after midnight, however, due to the path he had to take in order for the Steelers to put him back on their draft board after testing positive for marijuana at the 2012 NFL combine, you would think he would keep himself off the streets after midnight, if at all possible.
At 6 feet, 7 inches and weighing over 300 pounds, Adams is not hard to miss and over the course of the last year, I have seen several people post on Twitter about allegedly spotting him out late having a few cocktails. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, if indeed all of those sightings are true, he has to think about the appearance he gives off while doing so and especially if he is doing it as frequently as people allege that he is.
Whether Adams likes it or not, he and the rest of his teammates will always be under the public microscope, as long as they are members of the Steelers. It comes with the territory of being a professional athlete. Due to Adams\’ recent past, that microscope focuses in on him a little more than normal and thanks to the Saturday morning incident; the focus is now maxed out.
In order for Adams to slowly have the zoom backed off of him, I highly suggest he consider laying low for a while, and by low, I mean being off the streets by midnight. Adams is lucky to be alive, and according to the tweet he sent out following his surgery, I think he fully understands that.
Adams is not guilty of any crime, only a victim of one. He is, however, perhaps guilty of using poor judgment and we all have been guilty of that ourselves more than once in our lives. My hope for him is that he uses better judgment moving forward.
Get well soon, Mike.
