Everything about Carl Eller is just bigger, more severe

There will never be a movie made of my life; there could be a dozen made from Carl Eller’s:

-- I’ve enjoyed playing but more often watching football since I was a boy. Eller was a college and professional football star.

-- At 5-foot-11, I'm the biggest member of my family. Eller’s a giant man (6-feet-6, according to his 1970s Topps football cards). Here's part of what Dan Dierdorf said about Eller in his 2004 "Welcoming Committee" address at the Pro Football Hall of Fame: "... I'm sure that when I get to know you, you're a nice man and very gentle soul. But, I'm sorry, when I lined up against you as young player in the NFL, you were about the scariest-looking guy I've ever been around. ..."

-- The neighborhood I grew up in, in the racially mingled outskirts of Paducah, Ky., appears to have never been any too prosperous. The neighborhood Eller grew up in, in formerly segregated urban Winston-Salem, N.C., appears to once have been that town’s most affluent black neighborhood.

-- The houses in my old neighborhood are about as OK as they were when I was growing up there; the very small community of businesses, about as vibrant. When I visited there in 2005, the homes in Eller’s old neighborhood were alternately well-kept-and-charming grandparents' homes or falling-apart, abandoned eyesores. It appears to have once had a full spectrum of businesses that you'd need to exist within your own neighborhood (grocery, gas station, bank, etc.) By 2005, though, most were boarded-over and plastered with handbills; there appeared to be only two operational businesses: a beauty salon and a convenience store.

-- The high school I attended is going to close in a few years as part of a county-consolidation plan. There's a historical marker in front of Eller’s former Atkins High School, now a community center: "Constructed with the assistance of the Rosenwald Fund, a philanthropic organization devoted to building schools for African Americans. First use of Rosenwald Fund in North Carolina."

-- I have a drink or two a week. Eller has reportedly admitted to abusing alcohol and cocaine in the past.

-- I’ve participated in various anti-drug events through school, church and work. Eller operated a rehab facility and helped spur the NFL's anti-drug policies.

-- I've gotten speeding tickets and parking violations. As of last week, Eller's locked up in the Hennepin County, Minn., workhouse, serving a 60-day sentence after conviction on charges of fourth-degree assault of a police officer and second-degree refusal to submit to chemical testing.

Everything about Eller is just bigger, more severe. Bigger things—good and bad—happen to him, and he does bigger things—good and bad. And so, while I very much hope this latest episode in his life ultimately comes out well (and actually believe it could because unlikely redemption is the sort of thing that happens to a remarkable individual like Eller), there’s no experience in my life I can use to imagine what that outcome might be. My softer circumstances, choices and consequences are irrelevant in forecasting his. I hope and pray for the best.