FRANCHISE TAG APPLIES TO RUINED SPORTS CAR

Chicago Tribune – Aug 28, 2007 – Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz – Its 640 horsepower can be dangerous – The Lamborghini that Lance Briggs crashed on the Edens Expressway wasn’t just any old sports car.

The 2007 Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster LP640 is the top-of-the-line model of the hottest sports car currently on the market, according to Anthony Nuccio, sales manager at Fox Valley Motor Cars in West Chicago.

Nuccio said his dealership sells a couple of the cars per month, but mostly to businessmen or entertainers, not athletes.

Although some sports stars have come to the dealership inquiring about the Lamborghini, most players are simply too big to fit inside comfortably, Nuccio said. Briggs’ model was a convertible, so it offered a little more room, he said.

The car, at 640 horsepower, can be dangerous if the driver is inexperienced, said Nuccio. He said he always explains the shift patterns and makes sure customers are comfortable before he lets them take the model for a test spin.

But for some athletes, caution is not foremost — especially when they’re steeped in the macho environment of the NFL, said John Murray, a sports psychologist based in Palm Beach, Fla., who talked to RedEye on Monday about athletes in general.

While it’s anyone’s right to buy a fancy car, Murray said, risk-taking can be problematic for some young players who get to the NFL and find themselves making huge sums of money with neither the experience nor maturity to handle it wisely.

“These people are trained to dive across the line and hit people and run fast,” Murray said. “When you make it to the NFL, there’s something about you that’s bulletproof.

“It’s that sense that you’re going to live forever, that you’re never going to lose that position, that you’re always going to have that money.

“But the reality is that, for most people, it ends.”

Dr. John F. Murray is a sports psychologist and clinical psychologist providing sports psychology and counseling services based in Palm Beach, Florida.