I Should Have Been Dead

After seeing his play last night against Hondura’s, and then reading this story in the Washington Post, I’ll have a different view of Santino Quaranta the next time we see him on the pitch (Saturday against Haiti?)

Santino Quaranta’s right hand was throbbing, the consequence of a Toronto player stepping on him during D.C. United’s home opener in early April. The swelling spread past his wrist and toward the freshest and most poignant tattoo on his ink-covered upper body: “10-23-07,” a time stamp marking the turning point in his self-destructive life.

Alcohol and drugs are killing kids in this town and I’ve personally seen one young man who earned a D1 scholarship, stoop to stealing from his own mother to get the painkillers.

“Tino had a wonderful knack for telling you what you wanted to hear,” said midfielder Ben Olsen, a member of United since 1998 and the only MLS player Quaranta communicated with while in rehab. “He is as charismatic and loving as a person could be. You wanted to believe him. He was like a con man: He knew exactly what to say and when to say it. . . . A lot of us brushed it off, unfortunately, on him being a kid. And maybe that’s why he got away with it.”