Nowhere to hide!
Carragher brought shame on himself but footballers don’t deserve to be abused everywhere they go by jeering lowlifes wielding a mobile phone
NOBODY cares any more about the 700 appearances Jamie Carragher made for Liverpool. Or his 38 England caps.
The reasoned, articulate pundit Sky Sports paid £1million a year? He’s a goner.
The enduring image now is of a feral middle-aged man. A Scouse scally leaning out of a Range Rover window and gobbing on a 14-year-old girl.
In that instant, Carragher achieved something remarkable. He handed the moral high ground to a 42-year-old man with one hand on a steering wheel and another holding up a mobile phone as he shouted out a window past his teenage daughter.
The Liverpool legend got it badly wrong and he knows it. Even footballers with huge bank balances deserve the right to apologise, repent and rehabilitate themselves.
The worry for Carragher is obvious. There might be no comeback from this. The banter brigade scouring Britain’s streets in the search for a quick £250 from You’ve Been Framed have claimed another scalp.
To be clear, Carragher is no victim. His actions were horrible.
Yet, this was a week which highlighted the brainless idiocy high-profile footballers endure in public places.
Scott Sinclair of Celtic was abused by some dimwits in the BA lounge at Glasgow Airport. Russell Martin of Rangers was assailed by neddish bigots while shopping in Tesco.
By the standards of Sinclair and Martin, what Carragher faced was mild. An infantile bit of playground taunting from a Manchester United supporter.
His reaction was disproportionate, disgusting and hard to fathom. The next time West Ham fans stage a pitch invasion how can Carragher — of all people — sit in a Sky studio and condemn their anger?
None of which alters a core fact. Footballers earn a lot more than Britain’s average wage of £27,600. And the price they pay for that is to be poked, prodded and provoked by jeering cretins holding a mobile phone aloft in Nando’s. Advertising their stupidity to the world via the medium of film.
In the age of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, there’s no hiding place for a high-profile player or pundit. Nowhere is private. Football players are regarded as public property.
Sinclair was minding his own business waiting to board the 5.50 flight to London after last Sunday’s Old Firm clash at Ibrox.
Celtic had won 3-2 and he hadn’t even played. That made no difference to the bozos who verbally abused him in a BA lounge.
Consider this. Three grown men managed to get themselves thrown off a flight and turfed out of an airport before shelling out another hundred quid for a train to London. Why? Because they couldn’t cope with a Celtic player being in the same room.
Within hours, images emerged of some idiots walking past a Rangers defender in a supermarket uttering sectarian insults while filming the whole business.
When these things happen, some football supporters take refuge in a contrived air of moral superiority. Some like to think they breathe cleaner air than the
The truth is that clubs can’t control the people who attach themselves to their cause. Every club has its share of idiots.
The kind of lowlife who thinks it’s fine to set about footballers as they go about their daily lives with wives and kids in tow.
Spare us the idea that players earn so much money they should toughen up. A man doesn’t become fair game for abuse because he earns £20k a week.
Some of the people tutting at Jamie Carragher spitting out a car window probably think Sinclair or Martin had it coming.
In Scotland, footballers are routinely accused of bringing it on themselves.
But Scott Sinclair wasn’t provoking anyone by standing in the boarding queue at Glasgow Airport.
Lifting a package from a supermarket shelf and walking towards the check-out, Russell Martin offended no one.
Spitting at their tormentors never entered their minds. But, then, it shouldn’t have to.
Normal people would leave them in peace. And accept they have the right to some privacy.
The type of guys who think it’s fine to film sectarian movies in the electronics aisle of the local Tesco don’t need an upgrade for their iPhone. They need help.
Stephen McGowan Follow on Twitter @mcgowan_stephen