I watched Jamie Carragher playing football for Liverpool down through the years. I saw him playing live at Anfield and I also saw him on the TV and I’d have to say that I always admired the way the guy went about his business.
He was a good, solid professional, extremely loyal to his club and seemed, on the face of it, to be a genuine person. I was a little surprised when I saw him joining Sky Sports as a pundit when his playing career was over because I would have considered him to be too quiet for that role.
But he took to it like a duck to water and he proved himself to be an inciteful analyst who wasn’t afraid to speak his mind and he didn’t mind upsetting people. He was a rising star in the Sky camp and you could see him settling into the role and growing in confidence every week. That was until the wheels came off.
Only Jamie Carragher can explain what he was thinking about when he reacted the way he did after being goaded by an opposing fan. In case you’re not interested in football and haven’t been following the story let me explain.
Liverpool had just been beaten by Manchester United and after the game, a Man United fan was driving home with his 14 year-old daughter, when he drove alongside Carragher who was also caught in traffic.
The United guy started shouting at Carragher and he was rubbing his nose in the fact that Liverpool lost the game. Things got out of hand and Carragher opened his window and spat at the other car. He was filmed doing it and it wasn’t a pretty sight, in fact it was disgusting.
Carragher has apologised to the family concerned and has been suspended by Sky until the end of the season. He claims that this is totally out of character for him and he wants a chance to prove that he is a better person. I’m sure that he’s not a bad guy. He made a silly mistake on the spur of the moment, but it is one that could yet cost him dearly.
But we shouldn’t be all that surprised at this incident because spitting footballers is not a new phenomenon. I watch a lot of football on TV and it seems that every time a camera closes in on a player, he’s spitting. It’s constant and they’re all at it. It’s a dirty habit and it looks disgusting, but it has become part and parcel of the modern game.
I don’t know why it is peculiar to football because it doesn’t seem to be an issue in other codes. It’s not something I have seen on a rugby field, on a tennis court, on a cricket pitch or on a golf course. There was a rumpus a few years ago when Tiger Woods was caught on camera spitting as he walked along a fairway. It’s just not done.
So, what is it about footballers? I watched the next televised football game after the Carragher incident. It was Manchester United playing Sevilla in the Champions league. I was particularly watching for spitting and I noticed that Marcus Rashford was at it every single time the camera focussed in on him. He wasn’t the only one and even one of the other players that was being substituted, spat on the ground as he was just strolling off the field.
There are other habits too that are perfectly acceptable to some people but offensive to others. For instance, there are many people who chew gum. It never did anything for me and I don’t particularly like the texture of the stuff. I have no issue with people who do use it but I can’t for the life of me figure out why so many prefer to spit it out on the footpath when they’re finished with it.
Oprah Winfrey has a hatred of gum because of the experience she had with her grandmother when she was a child. Her grandmother had habit of chewing gum and she used to stick the old gum to various pieces of furniture, so she could re-use it at a later stage.
She said she grew up in Mississippi and her family was poor, so her grandmother used to try to save it by sticking it on the bedpost or on the cabinet.
As a child, Oprah often came in contact with some of these old bits of gum and it disgusted her so much that she actually developed a phobia and she became afraid of it. It didn’t end in adulthood either and in later life when Oprah became successful, she banned gum-chewing in her offices. If she had her way, she said she would implement a world-wide ban on the stuff.
There’s another habit that is almost as bad as spitting, and that’s chucking litter out of car windows. Food wrappers and drinks containers are a regular feature along the roadside because certain people are too ignorant or too lazy to hold onto the items until they get to a waste bin.
There are other habits that don’t necessarily fall into the category of disgusting, but they can be a bit baffling and even a little annoying. I’m thinking of these guys who insist on wearing their trousers half way down their arse, showing their jocks to the world. I don’t get it, but it has its followers.
My grandmother often wondered why youngsters follow the guy who does the wrong thing instead of following the example of the good guy. She said we were always attracted to the guy who was a bad influence.
She was probably right, but the good guys can let you down sometimes too.