... lifting off the airfield or a plane descending, heading for a crash?

The power to rise up and above certain elevations is more difficult than descending to lower levels.

Great players in college like JaMarcus Russell surely worked hard to rise up to the level of excellence perceived by so many, and at first qualified him for the contract that he has.

Once he joined the team, his slide downward took less time, and virtually little effort.

Of the fifty year history of the Raiders, most of those years were years in which hard work and "centered" players pushed against the "gravity" and competition in the NFL and rose up to a dignified position of excellence.

It has taken seven years to slide down to a painful le...

Read Complete Article at Bleacher Report - NFL