I was watching ESPN a number of years ago, and Chris Berman was talking about the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremonies he'd recently covered. I remember him saying something like, "Every one of the guys in gold jackets [Hall of Famers] walk with a limp."

Every single one? Can't be. But you know, I believe him. Athletes sacrifice their bodies for the fleeting and dubious comforts of wealth and fame. That's not just pros, either. This applies to high school and college athletes as well. My youngest brother has a friend who played four years of football at a small university. He played defense, and his shoulders are completely broken down from years of pounding practice dummies. He's got kids now, but it's unlikely that he can pick them up and hold them (while standing) for any amount of time.

And we're talking about more than football, too. Ben Olsen recently retired from pro soccer after enduring countless ankle surgeries and other medical problems. He's 32, and he spent most of his career battling ankle injuries, and a large part of his legacy is the famed "playing through pain" moniker that sports fans love. If you happened to be watching the last week of the NFL regular season, you might have seen Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger slinging passes after he apparently separated his shoulder. Roethlisberger couldn't even lift his arm except for the second or two when he threw a pass. I suppose that's inspiring to some, but it bothered me a little.

Here's the plain truth: pro athletes are a lot like porn stars. They're rewarded as long as they perform well. Once the color of their meat starts to turn, they're toast. Most parents don't want their kids to end up as porn stars. But an awful lot want their kids to be pro athletes. I don't get it.

We have some friends who are bound and determined that their kids will earn a college scholarship with athletic prowess. The pro side of the equation isn't quite so high on the horizon, but the fact of the matter is that college athletes are just like pros, except they don't get nearly so much money. Personally, I think I'd rather my kid went straight to the pros and picked up some college later. Might as well get paid. Even so, I'd rather they do something else.

But injury is just a minor concern when it comes to a life as an athlete. The greater problem is that athletes are encouraged to get into a self-centered cocoon and ignore the needs of everyone else. Tiger Woods is, perhaps, the most extreme example of this phenomenon, but there are junior high kids walking around with entourages and even de facto agents. Athletes are so celebrated that they're not actually allowed to be people.

Consider Tiger Woods. His story is older than the Bible--by a few million years. Man goes out and cheats on his wife. Nothing new there, except maybe for the extent of the scheming and, well, doing. But come on. Many young women are attracted to men who are powerful, famous or rich. Woods is all three. And he's almost impossibly good-looking. Even if he didn't have a "date caddy," he'd have been hard-pressed to avoid temptation at all turns.

All that isn't a defense. The man should have known himself well enough to know that he probably didn't have a talent for marriage. Because he has lived in the Tiger Woods cocoon, however, he hasn't had a chance to figure out who he really is. A lot of normal people never get there, either, but celebrities generally don't even get started on the process.

Unlike most other celebrity pursuits (acting, music, politics, etc.), however, the athlete is working almost all the time. There are no down periods. Even when the season is over, there are workouts, promotional appearances and more. Preseasons in professional sports have become superfluous; the athletes report in shape and ready to start the season from the first day of training camp. Those that don't aren't likely to stick around.

I've met actors, musicians and athletes. Famous ones. The most grounded tend to be musicians, despite their almost-insane lifestyle. Actors tend to be afflicted with an insecurity that feeds their need to perform, and athletes are generally dreadfully boring. They know what they do, and that's it. Most athletes have little knowledge of the history of their respective sports. Some don't even know who they're playing next. They simply know to show up for the bus and trust that the driver knows where he or she is going.

You'll notice I left out politicians. That's because they're the most like pro athletes. Their work is never done, either. But the main difference is that almost all politicians start out without the trappings of a cocoon. A successful politician has a gaggle of handlers and may (or may not) have any notion of which way might be up. But deep in the recesses of most politicians is some memory of the kernel of their successes. That thought is the hinge of the movie Dave. Kevin Kline, as the impersonator president Dave, asks the (real) vice president how he got his start. And so Dave drops out of his White House gig and runs for city council. It's a bit schmaltzy, I suppose, but idealism in the defense of liberty is no vice.

So mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be pro athletes. Encourage them to be people, instead.

Jon Worley has never been even a mediocre athlete, though he did win his Cub Scout olympics once.