Tragedy Strikes, Again

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August 30, 2022

by Steve Thomas

I had a whole other column idea for this week, a roster predictions and analysis piece, but that was before we learned early Sunday evening that Washington rookie running back Brian Robinson Jr. had been tragically shot in Northeast D.C., in what has been reported to be either a carjacking or armed robbery event.  Robinson was apparently shot in his “lower extremities” and not in a vital organ.  Thankfully, by all reports, he’s stable and in good condition; quotes from Ron Rivera and others, including a number of local beat writers, indicate that Robinson is doing well and is in good spirits.  The team retweeted what appears to be an Instagram photo from Robinson which is a photo through a window with the message, “Surgery went well! Thanks for the prayers! God is Great!”:

There’s also a video floating around of Robinson at the scene after the shooting, but that’s morbid, so I’m not going to link to it here or tell you where to find it.  If you want to see it, you can search for it yourself.

As of Monday night, no information is yet available as to Robinson’s status for the season, and I’ll leave the discussion of the impact of this incident on Washington’s running back room for another day.

What I’ve been thinking about in response to this incident is that, once again, we’ve all been shown just how fragile life can sometimes be.  Just picture it – one moment, Robinson has it all: the start of what by initial impressions is a bright future in the NFL, innocently cruising in downtown Washington; then, an instant later, it all potentially falls apart with a random, life-threatening criminal attack.  It’s more evidence that fate, or whatever higher power in which you may choose to believe, can strike at any time and to anyone.  The average person, more prominently in the younger crowd, tends to believe that nothing is going to happen to them.  Awful things are just stories on the news that happen to others.  It’s an invincibility complex that we all have to one extent or the other.  I know that before my personal health problems, which I wrote about here, I certainly felt that way.  The problem is that one just never knows when you might be next.  We just saw the horrific death of former Washington quarterback Dwayne Haskins a couple months ago, and now this.  I have no doubt that neither Brian nor Dwayne thought anything this bad would happen to them.

But it did.

I’ll leave the debates about prevention of crime, prosecution, policing, and gun control to another forum, not our little sports blog.  The question isn’t, really, how to prevent the bad, although certainly people can and should be smart and not put themselves in dangerous situations.  Not doing dumb things, making random strangers mad, going to bad places, or advertising wealth is a good start.  I don’t know if Robinson was doing or not doing any of those things; those are just a few smart rules of life.  No, what’s really going through my mind right now in response to this incident is once again the importance of family and your loved ones.   Take every opportunity to hold those around you close, because you just never know when circumstances may change and they might be gone.  Also, though, I hope what at least some people learn from these recent incidents is, in the immortal words of the ancient Roman poet Horace, carpe diem.  Seize the day.  I hope nobody out there leaves any dream left unchased or any road untraveled.  The worst thing about tragedies is missing opportunities: chances to remind your family that you love and care for them, career opportunities, wish lists unfulfilled.

So, I’m very thankful that Brian Robinson appears to be alright and by all accounts, his gunshot wounds are much less serious than they could have been.  Hopefully his football career can get back on track very soon.  But I hope everyone learns the bigger lessons.

Now, enough sappiness.  Let’s get back to football!