Another week, another England sporting superstar in trouble for the English malaise. Getting pissed and fighting with whoever is around at the time. Obviously, we can’t include England cricket star Ben Stokes in that really now as he has been found completely ‘innocent’ of all charges. And that, quite honestly, is backed up by some fairly clear evidence of him not beating the shit out of two men. It looks like he is, but, according the law, he wasn’t.

This week its Danny Cipriani, the recently recalled England fly half. He was out having a perfectly innocent ‘drink with his team-mates’ on a pre-season trip in Jersey, when he decided to take his drink outside. And was told by a bouncer that he couldn’t do that. I don’t know why; seems reasonable to me, seemed reasonable to Danny, but you know bouncers; ‘if ya ain’ on da list ya ain’ comin’ in’. Danny obviously wasn’t on the list of people allowed outside with their drinks. So they did what all reasonable people would, and had a fight. And then, when a policewoman came to sort out the matter, she somehow got hurt too by Danny. I can’t see really how a solitary policewoman would have trouble with a fight between a bouncer (say, 6 foot 2, shaven head, muscles lurking under every tattoo, probably steroided up to some extent; not making judgments, just sayin’) and a 6 foot of solid muscle professional athlete of a rugby player, I can’t see how she’d have had any problem at all with that scenario. But she did. And he resisted arrest and managed to hurt her in the process.

The terrible irony is that cricket and rugby are our ‘good guy’, gentlemanly sports. Football is for the real scummy thugs. These 2 heroes of their nation in their respective sports, are gentlemen.

But ya know, men drink, men fight, happens pretty much everywhere, not quite as frequently as here but its fairly universal. What makes these issues so horrible, and the long list of footballing incidents of a similar nature (so for the purposes of this debate, we’ll ignore the sexual assaults, rapes, statutory rapes, gang bangs, etc. etc. etc…) is the attitude of the guilty when caught. Basically always a version of ‘DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM???’ As if being famous for hitting/kicking/throwing a ball around gives you immunity not just from prosecution but for being a total asshole as well. “Oh! Sorry Sir!” they actually expect the reply to be, “I didn’t realise it was you, who played so well last weekend that you actually won the man-of-the-match award, I’m so sorry to have bothered you, especially with you being so rich. Just leave these bodies here and me and my other police colleagues will be delighted to sort them out for you. Sorry again, Sir.”

Our sporting heroes seem to have acquired a sense of entitlement to which they are certainly not entitled. And having reached some pinnacle of some sporting hierarchy, need to appreciate how lucky they are. Rather than use that precarious status as an excuse for acting like a nob.

Happy Thursday

A xxxx