I’ve been thinking this for a while. And just earlier on AFL Game Day (it was on, I know, I deserve it) there was this montage of an injured Bulldogs player (think it was Smith) coming off the ground and the aftermath… all set to slow funeral-style music… slow motions of his family in a circle in tears and his teammates hugging each other and talk of them needing to support each other, etc..
This was undeniably a theme of absolute grieving.
Now it’s not about Smith himself, I’m aware he’s had more than his share of injury frustrations, and he certainly didn’t ask for this treatment…
But seriously, the footy industry need a wake-up call on this bullshit. It’s cringeworthy.
Sports injuries are frustrating, physically painful and often unfair. But can we please stop with the theme of tragedy and grieving?
Football and sport are one part of life and getting injured is, in the scheme of life, a setback. That’s it. Talk I’ve heard it recent weeks from the likes of Bob Murphy about tears, teammates holding each other over a fallen mate, etc etc… FFS guys, wake up.
Obviously it’s got to the stage where these people exist in a bubble, it’s not their fault, but I really think the industry and also the covering media need to dial it back a few notches.
Football exists because of the ordinary people who follow it, and the longer this type of faux-tragedy crap goes on, the more you distance yourself from people who have real issues like death, illness and family issues. People for whom football is just entertainment and an escape.
I’ve seen soccer in Europe move to where the players and industry exist in another world and are completely foreign to the common man. I’d hate to see footy become the same way – I really think it’s the peoples’ game – and nothing says it more for me than participants who think a colleague missing some games of footy is akin to death.
Injuries aren’t a tragedy, they’re a professional setback for young men who will get over them quickly and move on. Look at somebody like David Schwartz, career ruined by injury, now very happy with a loving family and a job he loves, an extremely lucky and well-off person who’s had far bigger issues in his life that he’s moved past. At my own club there was somebody like Scott Gumbleton who never got a chance. He’s still now a lucky, healthy young man with a long and happy life ahead of him.
If you’re coming together and needing to “support” and literally hug each other through tears as Murphy and Beveridge and others have spoken of, like somebody has died, then you have issues yourself and badly need some perspective. It’s embarrassing.
Fans can be guilty of it too – on boards like this I see jokes made that are sexist, racist, bigoted etc.. somebody makes a joke about a pulled calf and there’s howls of protest. Who gives a shit? The injured fella will quickly get over it and so should you. Nobody wants or likes to see injury, but it’s a minor thing in the scheme of life.
Wake up, footy. Injuries suck, but that’s it.
Posted by Bunk Moreland on BigFooty, discuss his post here.
