It happened again. Jason “Mayhem” Miller was arrested this past weekend on charges of Domestic Violence. This marks the second time Miller has been arrested in the past 12 months, with the first occuring almost a year ago on August 13th, 2012. That incident was for breaking into and vandalizing a church in Mission Viejo, CA before being found naked and sitting on a couch by local police. This time, however, we’re still waiting for information and left to speculate on what actually happened. With that said, I don’t want to try and guess Miller’s actions, I want to talk about what we as MMA fans and media need to do in order to get best help him.
What do we do with Mayhem Miller?
For anybody who has followed Miller with any regularity, it is easy to see that the man has had a career marred by poor judgement. Whether it’s waving to the crowd with Shinya Aoki on his back, jumping into a cage containing the four Skrap Pack pillars of Team Cesar Gracie and starting a riot while asking for a rematch, or the aforementioned church incident, it’s quite obvious that there is something wrong. We all watch it, for better or for worse, due to the train wreck quality of it all, but what can we actually do to help?
One of the most noticeable things in “Mayhem’s” life since his cut from the UFC is the lack of activity other than, well, on his social media. He claimed, in an ill-fated and disturbing interview recently, to be working on a clothing line, and has been known to occasionally dabble in comedy. If that’s the case, it doesn’t seem to be enough to occupy his time and keep him out of major trouble. Before Miller’s retirement from MMA, his shenanigans tended to take place within the cage, and generally didn’t lead to his arrest – the one exception to this being the time his own sister had him charged for assault after he tried to escort her out of a party. Now, whether it’s appearing as “Lucky Patrick” on the MMA Hour, producing a knife and cutting up his shirt in a news interview, or whatever this latest incident is, it seems like Jason doesn’t have anything in his life to ground him in the same way that fighting did. As much as he lashed out at the community for not supporting him during the initial run of bizzare activity through the “Lucky Patrick” incident, perhaps the best thing we can do is to encourage Miller to re-enter the combat sports world in a significant capacity.
It’s difficult to watch anyone that you have a positive opinion of go through hard times. It’s even more difficult when they bring it on themselves, like “Mayhem” has done so often. Whether its his erratic outbursts on Twitter, or outrageous behavior in the real world, he needs help and support. Since he doesn’t appear to be getting it from other sources, it’s up to us in the MMA community to step up and help one of our own. It doesn’t mean we have to support – or even condone – all of his actions, but that we should offer the troubled athlete the encouragement he needs.
