I type this as my fingers dodge the sparks that fly as my tears drench the motherboard of my laptop; for only the second yet the final time, I type the four words that have become synonymous with incredible journalism withstanding the tenure of my back-page dictatorship: Good Morning Sports Fans.
For this is the finale; the termination of my reign as Sports Editor cut so sorely short by the need to graduate. I have very much enjoyed writing articles for the Telegraph over the past year, and have taken great pleasure in printing stories of Strathclyde’s sporting successes.
Each issue, I have challenged myself to write about an aspect of sport both topical, yet debatable. This last issue is no different, and in a certain aspect embroils last issue’s question about the use of technology in sport. However, as this is the final minute of extra-time for my position as Sports Editor, I am more than happy to go in for a last-ditch tackle on a topic that has often sprung to mind over the past year - and I’m willing to take any penalty that comes along with it - as this is a biggie that has been annoying me for quite a while. It is a simple question, but some may consider it quite brash: but has sport gone all soft on us? Have the fun-Police jailed every word or phrase considered unfriendly or politically incorrect, that they have found it necessary to condemn every moan or outpour of emotion in our sporting world to some sort of insane punishment too?
If ever you hear the phrase “It’s a man’s game” in today’s world of metro-sexuality, political correctness and hair-gel, it would purely be in irony. For there is no butch aspect of any sport today. Fair play has gone frankly mad, and the unwritten rule of sportsmanship seems to have evolved into a book written in three-hundred different languages, with the minimum punishment standing at £5000 and any show of emotion condemned to an instant suspension on the elated/disappointed athlete’s behalf.
The rule book is a shrine, padlocked to a slab in a windowless room, making the thought of throwing such out through any glass frame an impossibility. Professional sport nowadays is an over-sensitive soiree of ridiculous rule and order, where characters like John McEnroe, Jocky Wilson and even Vinnie Jones have fallen to extinction in the wake of today’s media-trained robots.
There have been a number of incidents recently where, lets call it the ‘But That May Be Upsetting’ rule, has veered its padded head into play. Take the whole Ferguson-McGregor ‘Boozegate’ debacle. It is difficult not to understand both players being punished for a late-night drinking session between two international football matches, but the whole hype surrounding the subliminal messages to the press from the dug-out at Hampden is down-right pathetic. The press should not dictate our perspectives of the game, and we cannot fall into their trap under the decoy of offended victims! For the amount of time the nation spends slating our footballing press, we seem to feel pretty sorry for them as soon as the tables get turned and the players fight back. I don’t feel it was the most ideal of time or place to flick the cameras the Vicky, but it is in no way wrong of the players involved to vent their frustrations at a press who have persistently been on their backs for more than a single season. Plus, the two have hardly sprung-off on some Gordon Ramsay-style rant and we are acting as if they have announced plans to bomb the local orphanage. It is a bleak reminder of the state of an ever-increasing family-friendly society.
Then there is the other side of ridiculous ruling: punishment for emotion. This is ruining sport! Ruining it! Imagine for a second, that you had just scored against the Auld Enemy for Scotland in the last minute of the World Cup Final. You were on a booking, yet in your celebration taken over by complete jubilation, you either A) ran towards your loyal support, B) took off your shirt in celebration, or C) told John Terry to get it right round him! You would have just won the World Cup for Scotland, yet you would have been sent-off in the final. Absolutely ridiculous!
Wayne Rooney, in Manchester United’s 2-0 away defeat to Fulham two weeks ago, threw the ball back to the site of a free-kick after play had stopped. The referee deemed that the manner in which the ball was thrown was aggressive and unsporting, hence issued the striker his second yellow card of the match and had him sent-off. Is this worthy of a dismissal? If so, why is it deemed worthy of a red card today? I am more than sure the likes of Graeme Souness and Alan Hansen threw or kicked the odd ball away in disgust during their playing days, yet it went unpunished. FIFA must have crumbled under the weight of work-related grievances brought forward by referees.
Another similar instance came in this years Masters at Augusta. There was much ado about nothing after Rory McIlroy was considered to have cheated after “deliberately testing the surface of the bunker”, when in fact it was more than obvious to the seeing-eye that the Northern Irishman was more keen on snapping his sand-wedge over his knee than surveying the feel of the sand. The ruling body brought into question whether he had brushed his club against the surface of the hazard in a self-controlled swing of rage at his first failed attempt at escaping the sand, or as a test to see how the lie under his feet would play. Although the television pictures clearly showed the annoyance on McIlroy’s face, the fun-police had to have their way and examined the video evidence before sending the young hooligan on his way. Pathetic.
Then there is that English racing driver. He has started this season pretty badly, so everyone seems to have forgotten his name in favour of the magnificent Jenson Button. I think it is Lewis Hamilton, current F1 champion. He told a porky about Jarno Trulli overtaking whilst the safety car was on the track in Melbourne in the opening Grand Prix of the season. Since realizing the truth about Hamilton’s ‘misleading’ comments, the FIA have thrown him out of the race and restored Trulli’s third-place finish. Does this punishment fit the crime? Definitely not. Who cares if he told just a little lie, he wanted to win - good on him! Why admit defeat when you can lie your way to success? This world…
So on a day when Roy Keane finds a way back into football as new manager of Ipswich Town, here’s hoping the Irishman takes whatever punishment may come his way for maintaining a strong personality and core set of beliefs in 2009’s sports context. In a world where everything is either politically correct or jail-time, it is essential that there are still characters in sport who lie if it will enhance their chance of success; take off their top and start a Conga in the stand if they score a goal for the team they love; throw a putter like a javelin after a missed two-footer; or grab the media by the neck and tell them where to go if they start to do their head in! Technology may start to dehumanise the officiating aspect of sport, but to make it great we still need actual human people to play it! Punishing emotion and the urge to win is plain wrong!
So here’s a toast: to those who love their sport, and give two-fingers to the fun-police. Barry, where did u get that keg?
For this is the finale; the termination of my reign as Sports Editor cut so sorely short by the need to graduate. I have very much enjoyed writing articles for the Telegraph over the past year, and have taken great pleasure in printing stories of Strathclyde’s sporting successes.
Each issue, I have challenged myself to write about an aspect of sport both topical, yet debatable. This last issue is no different, and in a certain aspect embroils last issue’s question about the use of technology in sport. However, as this is the final minute of extra-time for my position as Sports Editor, I am more than happy to go in for a last-ditch tackle on a topic that has often sprung to mind over the past year - and I’m willing to take any penalty that comes along with it - as this is a biggie that has been annoying me for quite a while. It is a simple question, but some may consider it quite brash: but has sport gone all soft on us? Have the fun-Police jailed every word or phrase considered unfriendly or politically incorrect, that they have found it necessary to condemn every moan or outpour of emotion in our sporting world to some sort of insane punishment too?
If ever you hear the phrase “It’s a man’s game” in today’s world of metro-sexuality, political correctness and hair-gel, it would purely be in irony. For there is no butch aspect of any sport today. Fair play has gone frankly mad, and the unwritten rule of sportsmanship seems to have evolved into a book written in three-hundred different languages, with the minimum punishment standing at £5000 and any show of emotion condemned to an instant suspension on the elated/disappointed athlete’s behalf.
The rule book is a shrine, padlocked to a slab in a windowless room, making the thought of throwing such out through any glass frame an impossibility. Professional sport nowadays is an over-sensitive soiree of ridiculous rule and order, where characters like John McEnroe, Jocky Wilson and even Vinnie Jones have fallen to extinction in the wake of today’s media-trained robots.
There have been a number of incidents recently where, lets call it the ‘But That May Be Upsetting’ rule, has veered its padded head into play. Take the whole Ferguson-McGregor ‘Boozegate’ debacle. It is difficult not to understand both players being punished for a late-night drinking session between two international football matches, but the whole hype surrounding the subliminal messages to the press from the dug-out at Hampden is down-right pathetic. The press should not dictate our perspectives of the game, and we cannot fall into their trap under the decoy of offended victims! For the amount of time the nation spends slating our footballing press, we seem to feel pretty sorry for them as soon as the tables get turned and the players fight back. I don’t feel it was the most ideal of time or place to flick the cameras the Vicky, but it is in no way wrong of the players involved to vent their frustrations at a press who have persistently been on their backs for more than a single season. Plus, the two have hardly sprung-off on some Gordon Ramsay-style rant and we are acting as if they have announced plans to bomb the local orphanage. It is a bleak reminder of the state of an ever-increasing family-friendly society.
Then there is the other side of ridiculous ruling: punishment for emotion. This is ruining sport! Ruining it! Imagine for a second, that you had just scored against the Auld Enemy for Scotland in the last minute of the World Cup Final. You were on a booking, yet in your celebration taken over by complete jubilation, you either A) ran towards your loyal support, B) took off your shirt in celebration, or C) told John Terry to get it right round him! You would have just won the World Cup for Scotland, yet you would have been sent-off in the final. Absolutely ridiculous!
Wayne Rooney, in Manchester United’s 2-0 away defeat to Fulham two weeks ago, threw the ball back to the site of a free-kick after play had stopped. The referee deemed that the manner in which the ball was thrown was aggressive and unsporting, hence issued the striker his second yellow card of the match and had him sent-off. Is this worthy of a dismissal? If so, why is it deemed worthy of a red card today? I am more than sure the likes of Graeme Souness and Alan Hansen threw or kicked the odd ball away in disgust during their playing days, yet it went unpunished. FIFA must have crumbled under the weight of work-related grievances brought forward by referees.
Another similar instance came in this years Masters at Augusta. There was much ado about nothing after Rory McIlroy was considered to have cheated after “deliberately testing the surface of the bunker”, when in fact it was more than obvious to the seeing-eye that the Northern Irishman was more keen on snapping his sand-wedge over his knee than surveying the feel of the sand. The ruling body brought into question whether he had brushed his club against the surface of the hazard in a self-controlled swing of rage at his first failed attempt at escaping the sand, or as a test to see how the lie under his feet would play. Although the television pictures clearly showed the annoyance on McIlroy’s face, the fun-police had to have their way and examined the video evidence before sending the young hooligan on his way. Pathetic.
Then there is that English racing driver. He has started this season pretty badly, so everyone seems to have forgotten his name in favour of the magnificent Jenson Button. I think it is Lewis Hamilton, current F1 champion. He told a porky about Jarno Trulli overtaking whilst the safety car was on the track in Melbourne in the opening Grand Prix of the season. Since realizing the truth about Hamilton’s ‘misleading’ comments, the FIA have thrown him out of the race and restored Trulli’s third-place finish. Does this punishment fit the crime? Definitely not. Who cares if he told just a little lie, he wanted to win - good on him! Why admit defeat when you can lie your way to success? This world…
So on a day when Roy Keane finds a way back into football as new manager of Ipswich Town, here’s hoping the Irishman takes whatever punishment may come his way for maintaining a strong personality and core set of beliefs in 2009’s sports context. In a world where everything is either politically correct or jail-time, it is essential that there are still characters in sport who lie if it will enhance their chance of success; take off their top and start a Conga in the stand if they score a goal for the team they love; throw a putter like a javelin after a missed two-footer; or grab the media by the neck and tell them where to go if they start to do their head in! Technology may start to dehumanise the officiating aspect of sport, but to make it great we still need actual human people to play it! Punishing emotion and the urge to win is plain wrong!
So here’s a toast: to those who love their sport, and give two-fingers to the fun-police. Barry, where did u get that keg?
Published: April 2009, Strathclyde Telegraph
Euan I can't find your facebook account, this is my email address: dragon_su_7@hotmail.com . I'm Susana from Barcelona (RAZZMATAZZ)
ReplyDelete14.05.2011