This is a story that's got legs. In fact, the story is moving quicker than the guy it's about.
Gary Peterson, in his Bay Area News Group column Sunday, wrote that Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell was "rumored to have spent part of the offseason at a clinic being treated for lethargy addiction ...."
That joke refers to Russell's notorious work-lite ethic, and to reports that he has been in Arizona at an athletic training program. I, too, have written lines that were so cute that readers missed the joke. Peterson's jest was taken literally by one Bay Area TV sportscaster, who reported Russell's "treatment" as news.
So it's been in print and on TV - JaMarcus is in lethargy rehab. From the e-chat at various Raiders' fan sites, it's clear that for many, the jest has morphed into fact.
Russell did go to Arizona, although if he actually enrolled in a shape-up program, it's news to Raiders' execs.
The interesting thing is not that a columnist's jest was misconstrued, or that a TV reporter misconstrued it. What's fascinating is that Russell's body of, uh, work in three NFL seasons makes the jokey report totally believable.
Russell has become the poster dude for lethargy, a condition waiting to be clinically approved.
Soon doctors will explain that lethargy isn't a character fault, it's a disease. If a golfer can be addicted to sex, why can't a quarterback be addicted to sloth? At least Russell is a recovering non-workaholic.
By the way, on YouTube I saw a clip, "JaMarcus spins twice & slings it 53." Russell, then quarterbacking LSU, and a good 50 pounds lighter than the Russell of today, makes a dazzlingly nimble escape from a pass rush and completes a bomb. If only he could move like that now ...
I need to cover myself here. Maybe Russell really did check into the Lazy Star Dude Ranch & Lethargy Clinic in Phoenix. If so, I wish him luck making it to the meetings.
A career that's turned into a punch line
