Footballers v Olympic stars

[Stat Brother]

I'm very much in the 'why can't footballers be like our brave Olympic hero's' camp.

But here's an interesting take on this debate from 5-lives Connor McNamara.

Broadly speaking his counter argument is:-

'If the media wanted Chris Hoy every week, week in week out...
...what if instead of cheering he occasionally heard booing from the crowd...
...there's a zero tolerance for any footballers mistake
...an Olympian makes a mistake we are sad and sorry
A footballer does and he just not good enough, his attitude is wrong'.

'People went to the Olympics to have a good time and enjoy the spectacle.
There was no negative singing or hostility from the fans'.

'Footballers might behave better if they weren't always in such a hostile environment'.

It's certainly has had me thinking, today.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I don't see what shagging your teammates' wife has to do with getting booed by a crowd. Or how spit-roasting some teenagers would escape the tabloids if perpetrated by the Men's Coxed Pairs.

And it isn't even as simple as the money. Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees earns Beckhamesque sums yet, unlike Rio and Rooney, is a perfect role model for the biggest sports franchise in the States.

 

[Stat Brother]

I don't see what shagging your teammates' wife has to do with getting booed by a crowd. Or how spit-roasting some teenagers would escape the tabloids if perpetrated by the Men's Coxed Pairs.

True, but that's not every footballer, is it.

I think he was asking if, we the fans, need to take responsibility for our part, no matter how small, in what football has become.

 

[Hove Seagull]

I don't see what shagging your teammates' wife has to do with getting booed by a crowd. Or how spit-roasting some teenagers would escape the tabloids if perpetrated by the Men's Coxed Pairs.

It couldn't happen with the men's coxless pairs!

 

[Stat Brother]

I think the most influential party in the whole saga is the press. If they didn't make footballers celebrities and also their wifes and girlfriends ones as well there would not be half the problem

Playing devils advocate:-

Who are they doing that for?

A tweet from Ian Stone, comedian, last Sunday:-

'ah 40,000 chanting wanker, it's good to have football, back!'

 

[Pavilionaire]

True, but that's not every footballer, is it.

I think he was asking if, we the fans, need to take responsibility for our part, no matter how small, in what football has become.

It wasn't the press or the fans that made a mockery of the failed "Respect" campaign the football authorities tried to instill. It was the players and the managers who continued as they'd always done, strangling the concept at birth.

It would have been interesting to see how the press and fans would have responded if Respect had been truly embraced.