News: Quaranta: 'I Should Have Been Dead'

A ton of stuff to respond to:
1. When I got my Minnesota license, I had to watch a 20 minute long video about how pain is undertreated, but the tag line at the end was almost literally "but don't give too much".
2. Two or three years ago, the FDA sent out nastygrams to docs who "overprescribed". By a miracle I didn't get one, but a partner of mine did who was considerably more tight-fisted than I am.
3. How can I step into someone's skin and say how much they do or do not hurt, lacking a pain-o-meter?
4. Pain and suffering are very different. Some stoic hockey players demand to get stitched up between shifts without anesthetic, while threaten a pre-teen with a needle and watch the fun begin.

I can only imagine treating Tino. You assume that a tough kid who can tolerate the rigors of training must really be hurting to ask for narcs, at least at first. Pretty quick I guess the docs were smelling a rat as they started to dole out the narcs in 20's and 30's. When they cut bait on him, I would have been pretty conflicted to tell the team that I suspected addiction.

Imagine being Bruce Arena and seeing Tino over 200 pounds, barely able to move, likely hungover as often as not. Yell at him, run his guts out, cut him and say goodbye. How much do the coaches have in the ability to call a young man out, because I am sure they knew something serious was up?

I am heartbroken for what happened to your sister, but when it comes to someone who is terminal I have an open checkbook pretty much. It is when you have the more common case of someone who is in N.A. but has chronic back pain and smokes and is deconditioned and is on psychiatric drugs for anxiety problems, you tell me if I am treating pain or addiction, and how many of those pills go into the open market. The saddest case is the person with legit needs who begs for more and then sells out of their excess. It sucks to put the hammer down on someone like that, but I have. (Sorry about the long post.)

 

Best of luck to Quaranta in his efforts to make the most of the rest of his life - it's pretty pathetic how easy it is to feel bad waiting for a visa, when there are far worse cases than mine out there on Earth.


I hope that the next time there is some kind of player-meet event on, that Tino goes along, and he gets to meet some of the well-wishers here at the boards - even if it only helps a little, it's still something.

 

As a life long soccer fan in the Baltimore/Washington area, I have followed Santino's career since he was a kid. The kid has grown up to be a man, a very talented one at that, Lets support him and his family as he gets his life in order. A BIG SANTINO FAN

 

Seriously? That blows!

 

I missed the start. How was the welcome?

 

CSN is about to have a segment on Tino in a minute.

 

At the end of the game as the players were exiting the field, the Barra started chanting "Tino!! Tino!!"

What's the word we use- Corazon? I think the man has it.

 

How ironic! I seem to recall some dopy kids behind me in the Barra smoking something illegal during the Houston match.

 

from behindthebadge (mixed in with the postgame quotes)

D.C. United Midfielder Santino Quaranta
On talking about his addictions:
It was an emotional day. It’s tough to read that about yourself – about where I am now. If one person reads that, and it helps them, it’s not about me now anymore. I go about this every day. It’s about other people reading that story and maybe it helps one person. It was an emotional day for me. My phone started ringing at seven o’clock in the morning. The fans have been amazing. I was a little nervous when this came out, I didn’t know what to expect because I kind of kept this under wraps and I didn’t go to anybody wanting to put the story out. I don’t want a pat on the back for it. It’s what I have to do as a father, as a husband. I’m just so grateful to be back. It’s the bigger picture. This is bigger than the stadium, it’s bigger than this team. It’s an amazing journey back for me in general and I’m very grateful to be out there playing in front of people and to just be walking.

 

I imagine so too. The only player I can ever recall looking as attractive going straight into the draft out of Bradenton (besides Adu) was Jozy (still am sick we didn't draft him, as all the write ups I found on him were even more glowing than those on Tino four or five years earlier). Then we heard nothing but rumors and suggestions, much like w/Eddie, of issues w/maturity and attitude but no more than that. Well now we know what the problem was, and kind of scarily, that United, for the most part, was clueless as to how serious the problems were.

Kinda scary to read about the Raven player as well. I can't help but wonder if it's McAllister. Years ago I worked w/someone who knew McAllister coming out of Arizona. His name popped up because I was whining about the Redskins failing to draft Champ AND McAllister, or Culpepper/Holt and McAllister (my preferences in the '99 draft over the idiotic BJ trade). This coworker told me that McAllister had a serious big time drinking problem and that while it hadn't torpedoed his career, it very well might. A brief time later his name did come up in reference to being under the influence (it's been years and I forgot when it exactly it happened) of something, and I did hear that McAllister still spent plenty of time on the west coast, so I wonder if that's who it was. Total speculation of course, but McAllister is one of the few guys that would have been there during Santino's time in DC, and today as well but of course this is nothing but speculation on my part.

 

One of the many reasons I was happy to see Jozy escape now, rather than be trapped for another year or two. I didn't think Jozy was going to get lost exactly, but it appeared as if things were potentially going to get sour, soon, if he didnt get out.

On top of the issues you bring up, the league really needs to develop a more coherent strategy for developing youth players, because the longer they deliberately place road blocks in the way of young players aspirations, the more likely it is our best and brightest will bypass the MLS entirely (as they've been doing in greater and greater numbers) and simply go off to Europe or worse, end up like Santino, and simply not be able to handle the situation. As others mentioned, this league has younger pro's coming in then any other sport in America by generally 2+ years. It needs to develop a better plan. It might be wise to borrow ideas from the NFL when it comes to their rookie symposium, as well as develop mentoring programs.

 

Spotted leaving the game last night - Mother and little girl wearing DC Away jerseys - The mother had "Quaranta" above the number 25 - The little girl had "Daddy"

 

Interesting story. Always amazes me how people become slaves to drugs.

Glad is clean, every child deserves that.


Keep it going Santino

 

He has been one of DC's best players so far this season. I can't believe he can live on only $35k a year and support a family.....is he getting any bonus money?

 

There were about ten of them who parked near me in Lot 8, all wearing white away jerseys with "Quaranta" above the number 25. I thought about talking to them (they were tailgating) but decided not to intrude on what I took to be a family moment.

 

It does make me wonder if, at Bradenton, they work as hard teaching the boys life skills as they do media skills. From the article, I didn't get the sense that Santino had been life coached to avoid these problems.

Another great point. I hadn't thought of it until the Brett Favre addiction story hit, but pro athletes have huge legitimate need of painkillers. Which means they have huge potential to get addicted to them. I've had vicodin for various maladies and my back, and let me tell ya, that shit makes me feel goooood. Using them totally legitimately, it ain't easy to stop taking them. "Boy, I hope my back hurts again soon." This is an enormous potential pitfall for pro athletes.

You know, we who support US soccer often complain that our youth development system isn't more like Europe's. But really, if it were, you'd have 18-19 year olds signing contracts for more money they can handle, but not more money than they can blow through. It's a small blessing.

To (very) mildly defend MLS, when SQ came into the league, they were in a period of desperately hanging on. I'll bet every expense was closely scrutinized. Let's hope that now, with more kids entering MLS in their teens, they have something set up.

And huge, huge props to Mrs. Quaranta. She sounds like an awesome girl.

 

True, but in Europe, an 18 or 19 year-old pro player is not that big of a deal as is it here. Plus they've got loads more boys who are itching for a chance to get in the league so there's more pressure to not blow it. MLSers aren't used to being around a bunch of younger players nor have they gone through being pro at 18 or 19 since most of them are coming out of college programs where they've had to balance academics and partying to stay in their atheltic programs.

Here is where I think our older foreign players can be great mentors, esp. the ones that did come up through youth academy programs. They can mentor the younger players who haven't been through college and say, "I've been where you are. There will be a great temptation to blow all of your money on girls and booze. Don't do it."

I also think that the MLS really dropped the ball by not making Tino finish HS until now. HS and college athletes all have to keep up their grades or be cut from the team. Not insisting that Tino finish a GED within a year or two of being recruited probably didn't do much to help Tino develop some discipline.

 

That's part of it, but if SQ were to have signed at 16 in Europe the club takes good care of these kids. they get setup with a host family, still go to some level of schooling on top of their practice time with the team. In a lot of ways they are kept busy to not have the time to get into much trouble. We know Wes Brown's cousin. Wes has been in ManU system since about 10. His cousin was telling us how much the club does the players in helping with some of these things so that the players don't get into this type of trouble and also help managing money. the funny thing is though that in some areas the clubs do to much so the players struggle with other life skill areas. Most of them couldn't cook a meal to save their lives, if they had to open a bank account or get a car on their own they wouldn't have a clue because the clubs take care of pretty much anything they want. Also with a lot of clubs providing cars and housing to players, they never have to think about these things. So in a lot of ways it' a double-edged sword. MLS can definitely do a better job of working with the really young players and while Europe does somethings good we need to take those things and add on to it. In some ways MLS should see what the NBA does since they are the only other league in the US that gets young players albeit their at least 18 because of their CBA.

 

Can someone tell me what a typical Bradenton day is like for a high-school age player? I assumed, perhaps naively, that it involved academics as well as soccer, with the two elements sharing the day. Add some "life skills" training and it would be even better. I was thinking that US Soccer should develop an academy in suburban Maryland near Soccerplex. The kids would either live in a dorm arrangement or board with families and attend the local high schools, perhaps with a reduced course load and schedule. The rest of the day would be practice/matches at Soccerplex.

 

I've oft-been critical of Santino...obviously I had no idea about his drug addiction. I hope his success on this path continues. He's doing great as a player, seems much more interested in whats going on. Drug addiction is not an easy thing to overcome and to admit it publically is very mature...and I think will prove to be a wise move in the long run.

At the start of the season I didn't think he deserved a second shot...obviously, knowing what he had been through, he defintly deserved this second shot for getting clean. Keep it up Tino...my respect for you has defintly increased(just keep clean, or your back in the doghouse)

 

The whole painkiller thing is the forgotten underbelly of drug-testing in pro sports. People are so focused on narcotics and steroids that they're completely overlooking the painkillers that (especially) NFL trainers hand out like candy.

 

Pain killers are narcotics. Many drugs that people refer to as narcotics are not, but pain killers like oxycodone and morphine are the very definition of the word.

 

Thanks for posting that. I thought that a lot of prescription pain-killers were narcotic which is why they are highly addictive.

Sudafed is also in the same family as meth which is why you have to show ID to buy it now. People were buying up caseloads and freebasing it. Even ADD meds like Ritalin are crushed and snorted as they act like speed in people who don't have ADD.

And to think that just over the border in Canada, you can buy Tylenol with Codiene over the counter.