On the Cardinals’ former all-pro offensive lineman:

I sit back down and Sharpe gently touches a depression under his right eye. It was here, he says, that he was struck with a lock in a sock, a blow that fractured his eye socket, requiring reconstructive surgery. He says he still suffers from headaches and dizziness. He wonders if hes suffered permanent brain damage.

We talk for a few more minutes. Almost as an aside, he says hes been in and out of prison since 1996.

“Fifteen years?” I say incredulously.

“Yeah,” Sharpe says. “Longer than I played football.”