Hate him.  Fear him.  It’s people like him who can destroy life as you know it.

Keith Fitzhugh is his name, and he has done the unthinkable.  He has forsaken the opportunity for a moment of fame and glory, a chance at quick and dirty celebrity, and has chosen to be a responsible, hard-working adult instead.  Damn you, Fitzhugh.

From The Gothamist:

On Monday night, the Jets were pulverized by hated rivals the New England UGG Spokesmen in their worst performance of the season. What was initially billed as the battle for AFC supremacy turned into a Foxboro Massacre as tackles were routinely missed, the offense was non-existent and defense players went down with injuries. And proving how much bad luck the Jets seem to be having right now, even the journeyman safety they offered a roster spot to gracefully rejected them.

The player in question, Keith Fitzhugh, was an undrafted rookie in 2009 who spent time on the team’s practice squad last year and in training camp with them this year. The Jets front office called him yesterday afternoon to offer the spot, having lost two safety’s to injury already this season. Of course, Fitzhugh didn’t reject the team because of their poor play on Monday. As he told the NJ Star-Ledger, he has a stable job with health benefits as a conductor with Norfolk Southern railroad outside Atlanta, and he is the breadwinner in the family now.

Has he never heard of Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton?  Does he not realize that there is no higher goal in the scheme of slackerhood than to become an overnight celebrity?  He could have been a contender.  Instead, he’s employed.  What is he thinking?

While many millennials find it difficult to hear the harsh words that there are choices in life that need to be made, good and bad ideas that need to be considered, because they function under the misguided belief that they can do whatever makes them happiest at the moment, entitled to success regardless of whether they take the hard road or the easy one, not every kid is a Slackoisie.  Some, like Fitzhugh, make hard choices, and they chose responsibility to themselves and their family.

It would be nice if his employer, Norfolk Southern, would give him a some time off to see if he’s got the juice to play safety for the Jets.  But even that is risky, as he could come back brain-addled and broken, and not much use to the railroad or anyone else. 

Note the risks: 

As NBC points out, Fitzhugh’s story points to the hardships of life in the margins of the NFL: “We forget sometimes how short professional sports careers tend to be on average because all of the focus goes to the guys who make big money over long careers…[their] concerns — health insurance, financial security and the like — are exactly the same as they are for most of the rest of us.”

It could have been a once-in-a-lifetime chance at greatness.  Or the quick trip to the emergency room, since for every 12 year player there’s a guy whose career is over in three months.  Keith Fitzhugh chose to be a responsible human being, to take care of the things that mattered most to him rather than sacrifice those he loved for the chance at his personal moment of greatness.

So if you see him, stay away.  It could be contagious, and you certainly wouldn’t want to catch responsibilities and priorities that could interfere with your entitlement to fame and fortune.  After all, there’s no cure.