Brendan Fevola of Carlton comforts Ben Cousins of Richmond as Cousins hobbles from the field during the AFL Round 01 match between the Richmond Tigers and the Carlton Blues at the MCG.
Recently I’ve been reading the life story of Vince Lombardi, the legendary American football coach credited with coining the phrase “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing”.
Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers won four NFL titles in the 1960s, including the first two Super Bowls, and produced a string of future Hall of Fame stars.
Lombardi was more than a football coach.
During the Packers’ glory years and up until his early death, his name was so synonymous with success that both the Republicans and the Democrats considered wooing him to run for vice-President.
Known for his totally uncompromising thirst for success and demand for unflinching discipline, players both loved and hated him. Some readers will also know that Jack Gibson drew heavily on Lombardi’s methods and proceeded to revolutionise rugby league in the 1970s.
But reading about the rituals and behaviour in Lombardi’s dressing rooms, you notice a funny thing: most of the players smoked. Lombardi smoked three packets a day. They smoked before the game, at half time and, win, lose or draw, after the game.
One of the heaviest smokers of the lot was Paul “the Horn” Hornung, Lombardi’s star halfback and celebrated drinker, playboy and all-round party animal. Despite – or perhaps partly because of – all this he was known as the ‘Golden Boy’ and not even a year’s suspension from football for gambling on games dented the adoration of fans or stopped his Hall of Fame election.
Sports history is full Paul Hornungs. In fact, the idea that you have to behave like Cistercian monk in order to be a professional athlete is a pretty recent invention, probably first appearing in the 1980s.
But the idea that you must live clean in order to play well is not only new, it is also a lie.
Whatever else Ben Cousins’ trials and tribulations tell us, they show that sport and drug taking can mix. Don’t they? This is not to say that a person should take drugs or that drug taking is something we want to encourage, but it does show, quote spectacularly I think, that taking illegal drugs does not necessarily stop a person from being an elite athlete.
After all, Ben Cousins was the best in his sport, just like Andrew Johns, at the same time as being, well, a drug addict. And, as I say, Cousins and Johns are not, by any stretch, exceptions.
Why is this important? So much of our drug education, particularly but not only in schools, is based on lies. We tell children that taking drugs will kill you, that it’s not much fun, that you’ll lose all your friends.
And we use elite athletes to tell children that drugs and sport don’t mix.
The trouble with this is that the world is full of people who seem to prove all of this wrong. Research in Australia consistently shows that the down-and-out junkie represents only a small minority of the country’s drug takers. Heroine and cannabis users, as well as the seriously alcoholic, often conduct lives that look, at least from the outside, just like yours and mine. They go to work. They go home. They look normal.
Drug taking is a problem. But it is vital that we are clear about what kind of problem it is. And telling aspiring athletes, and even young people who look up to athletes, that sports and drugs don’t mix does not work because it is a lie and young people know it is a lie.
There will be those who will say that the demands of the modern athlete are greater than the past and so the example of Paul Hornung and others doesn’t count.
Actually, I think it’s the other way round. Hornung, like most pre-1980 footballers, worked a second job in the off season and, unlike the Ben Cousins of the world, didn’t have dozens of support staff telling him what to eat, when to go to bed and generally organizing his life for him.
Perhaps Ben Cousins was able to combine his off-field and on-field lives because of the “professionalism” of the modern athlete, not despite it.
Drug taking is a problem in modern sports because it tarnishes the image that sponsors want to project. Why don’t we just say this and leave it at that?
It seems that many of the people hoping for a clear anti-drugs message from the Cousins documentary were disappointed.
But there is a simple reason for their disappointment; Ben Cousins is still a footballing hero. He was cheered in his final match. He will no doubt end up running around with water bottles on the field or smashing the glass in the coach’s box one day. No, actually he will probably end up as a commentator.
Those who want to trumpet some simple and high-minded ‘just say no’ message through football and footballers must understand this. Football players are human, not gods and certainly not role-models.
I doubt that Ben Cousins’ experience has caused any young person to start taking drugs and doubt very much whether telling his story has discouraged any. Drug-taking is a much more complicated social problem. The idea that children copy the behaviour of footballers was always a silly idea invented by footballers with a rather over-developed sense of their own importance.
Football is a world full of simple problems and uncomplicated ideas. It doesn’t teach us how to live because living is more complicated than football.
In fact, if the Cousins saga teaches us anything, it should be a clear reminder that professional football is, today more than ever, a place to hide from the real world, not a training ground for it.
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- AFL, Ben Cousins, Vince Lombardi
August 31st 2010 @ 6:39am
sheek said | August 31st 2010 @ 6:39am | Report comment
Really enjoyed the article & Michael, & largely agree.
Many sports, especially rugby union, are bland these days because so many characters & personalities have been driven underground, or out…..
August 31st 2010 @ 7:07am
MVDave said | August 31st 2010 @ 7:07am | Report comment
Totally disagree with the article… as the family of the young Hawk player on the front page of the paper today would also disagree. Drugs are harmful and DO destroy lives (just ask the family members of drug addicts etc)…any other message is a complete lie.
August 31st 2010 @ 7:38am
anopinion said | August 31st 2010 @ 7:38am | Report comment
Enjoyed your article and believe you are very close to the truth.
August 31st 2010 @ 8:25am
Mushi said | August 31st 2010 @ 8:25am | Report comment
By the same premise people shouldn’t encourage their children to study at school, after all if some people can get quality grades and a university degree whilst rarely attending class can’t we all? Hell why even send them after all plenty of high school drop outs have had amazing success.
August 31st 2010 @ 3:49pm
anopinion said | August 31st 2010 @ 3:49pm | Report comment
Not the best analogy I have ever read.
August 31st 2010 @ 8:37am
Redb said | August 31st 2010 @ 8:37am | Report comment
For those who say the Cousins doco did little to discourage drug taking or tackling the issue by educating and bringing awareness, in the day following the airing of the first part, the Victorian branch of the Aust anti-Drug Foundation received 15 times the number of average calls it receives from addicts and families of addicts.
I think the article misses the point. Ben Cousins was a highly paid footballer able to supply his habit, he was in a unique position. Apart from the health factors of drug addiction, one of the problems of drug addiction in society is that addicts need to fund their habit which leads to crime, domestic violence, etc.
it is not as simple as suggesting well maybe you can get away with it for most people.
August 31st 2010 @ 9:09am
Kurt said | August 31st 2010 @ 9:09am | Report comment
True enough, which is why all drugs regardless of the impact upon the individual should be completely legalised, though the sale and distribution should still be heavily regulated. In a stroke you’d destroy the power of organised crime and reduce the number of petty thefts and break-ins by maybe 50%. You’d end up with an increase in usage but the overall societal harm would be significantly reduced – much as happened with the legalisation of prostitution.
August 31st 2010 @ 10:01am
Redb said | August 31st 2010 @ 10:01am | Report comment
maybe marijuana,etc but some of these rec drugs are highly addictive, to legalise would be counter-productive, ultimately spreading the addiction problem amongst the wider population and increasing health issues.
August 31st 2010 @ 11:27am
beaver fever said | August 31st 2010 @ 11:27am | Report comment
Haven’t they tried this in Holland, and now they want to backtrack from legalising everything.
August 31st 2010 @ 9:24pm
Brendan said | August 31st 2010 @ 9:24pm | Report comment
It doesnt account for all of the people that it did encourage to take drugs.
August 31st 2010 @ 9:47am
Face the Facts said | August 31st 2010 @ 9:47am | Report comment
IMO Kurt’s comment is spot on. In Meyer Lansky’s book “Mogul of the Mob” he says that Prohibition in the US was the making of the mafia – prostitution and gambling rackets were small change compared to the money the Mob made out of selling booze during Prohibition. And having lived for 10 years in a couple of the larger producing countries in Sth America (Colombia and Peru), I’ve seen up close the violence and destruction narco dollars have brought to those societies. You fix these problems by taking the margin out of it via legalization and carefully controlled distribution.
August 31st 2010 @ 11:24am
Spiro Zavos said | August 31st 2010 @ 11:24am | Report comment
Paul Hornung also played out the full game, attack and defence, which was standard in those days for the best players. This is not endorsement of smoking as an aid to good results on the sporting field. But it does show, I think, that the benefits of players having a life outside of their sports is an important consideration that is too easily over-looked, especially with the younger players.
August 31st 2010 @ 11:49am
Richard said | August 31st 2010 @ 11:49am | Report comment
Your article is naive in the extreme, but it is well written, which also makes it dangerous, since some may be influenced by it as a result. But eloquence does not equal wisdom and you have done yourself and the rest of us a disservice by writing such rubbish. The fact is the footballers are role models for young people, who look up to them for the exciting lives they lead. Young people need good examples in life, and people like Cousins are not a good example at all. Neither is Lombardi’s smoking, although if he did smoke three packs of fags a day, that is in itself instructive. For those generations of the first part of the twentieth, smoking was the norm. It was associated with success through marketing campaigns which held up role models who smoked, the Marlboro Man among them. People were greatly influenced by the image, still are. But the Marlboro man died of lung cancer and those generations of heavy smokers were ravaged by smoking related diseases. Your argument that drug taking does not negatively affect lives and that Cousins and Johns are not to be criticised because of their drug taking, is naive. No worse, it’s offensive, and just plain wrong.
August 31st 2010 @ 3:59pm
anopinion said | August 31st 2010 @ 3:59pm | Report comment
This article is not so naive. Naivety is to believe that the view we sell our children of the dangers of drug use is actually the truth. It is not. To quote a friend who works for the Australian Crime Commission, “drug use does not cause us that much of a problem, it is the carry over effect of drug use”. By this she meant, the crime of those who can not afford it, the crimes committed by those who want to control the sale of it.
People with steady jobs, who use drugs are not causing society many problems at all, not compared with obesity, nicotine and alcohol related issues we face. The great lie we tell our kids is that drug use is our greatest evil.
“Cmon kids lets go to Maccas”
August 31st 2010 @ 6:41pm
Michael Gard said | August 31st 2010 @ 6:41pm | Report comment
Thanks Richard for reading and for your response. Still, sorry mate but I’ve got to say it: what IS naive is believing in the idea of role models. You might as well believe in the easter bunny. Footballers do not make children take drugs. It’s just a fantasy. What kids want is to be famous and rich like footballers. The do not want to BE THEM. Brett Kirk being a Buddhist is extremely unlikely to turn kids into buddhists. You may wish for or dream about a world where children are inspired into leading wholesome lives by the brave deeds of footballers . It’s just that this isn’t the world we live in.
August 31st 2010 @ 6:59pm
Richard said | August 31st 2010 @ 6:59pm | Report comment
You’re obviously an expert on this Michael. I am interested in the research you have conducted to come up with your undeniably apocryphal hypothesis. What evidence do you have which contradicts the widely held view that in fact children do follow role models, that they are influenced by good and bad behaviour of those role models, and that we owe it to children to provide them with solid positive role models. Ben Cousins is a monumental narcissist, obviously obsessed with self, who through his selfish self indulgence has brought his football code into disrepute, has severely damaged the fabric of his original footy club, he has brought great stress to his family, and through this has provided a very poor example to those we seek to inspire to have a meaningful and useful life. He is, Michael, a complete waste of space. And there is considerable evidence that illicit drugs have ruined many promising lives. I say drop a weight on Cousins from a great height and vote for a similar fate for those apologists for his misbehaviour.
August 31st 2010 @ 7:06pm
Michael Gard said | August 31st 2010 @ 7:06pm | Report comment
Simple question: do you know one single person who has taken up drugs because of Ben Cousins? Just one? In fact, can you name one person in the world who has taken up drugs because of the behaviour ‘modeled’ by footballers. I’m not talking about people who became professional athletes and then ‘fell in the with the crowd’. That’s a different matter. What I’m talking about here is this strange idea you seem to have about how and why children behave in particular ways. I’m not asking you to name names but can you even think of a person who became a drug taker because of Ben Cousins or any other footballer?
August 31st 2010 @ 8:11pm
Richard said | August 31st 2010 @ 8:11pm | Report comment
Now you’re clutching at straws Michael. Who I know or don’t know, and what they have done or not done, is a subjective nonsense. What counts is thorough empirical research. But I can tell you that when I was a kid, standing in the outer at Victoria Park, I greatly admired the great Collingwood player Terry Waters. I admired him because he was famous and exciting, but he was also courageous, determined, skillful and a great team man. Like all kids with a hero, I wanted to play footy like him, to live life like him and to be succesful like him. I mimicked the way he played, the gestures he made, the things he did. I’ve grown up now of course and these days see Terry Waters in a more moderate light, although I do still think of him (and the great Ted Potter, Ian Graham and Len Thompson) with nostalgia. If he had been a bad lad, he may have had quite the opposite impact on my life to the one he did have. You were a kid once Michael; c’mon, don’t tell me you didn’t have heroes. You’re too smart to make excuses for an oxygen thief like Ben Cousins.
September 1st 2010 @ 7:49am
anopinion said | September 1st 2010 @ 7:49am | Report comment
You said “What counts is thorough empirical research”. I now invite you to show us proof that children are influenced by footballers.
September 1st 2010 @ 9:10am
Richard said | September 1st 2010 @ 9:10am | Report comment
I think the post by Karlos expresses it well. “anopinion”, you are right in that human beings are not machines, and therefore a stimulus does not provide the same reaction in every person, kids included. But you are fooling yourself if you don’t think that influences like Cousins celebrity drug taking doesn’t affect or influence them at all. That is why it is important that the rest of the community roundly condemns the irresponsible behaviour of phonies like Cousins. We have a recreational drug problem amongst youth. We can’t afford to let that go unaddressed.
September 1st 2010 @ 1:53pm
Beast-A-Tron said | September 1st 2010 @ 1:53pm | Report comment
As opposed to the drug problem amongst the baby boomers in their youth, ay Richard?
August 31st 2010 @ 9:09pm
Rosee said | August 31st 2010 @ 9:09pm | Report comment
Totally agree with you Michael. My sons love Ben the footballer. They loved watching him on the field. They do not think of him as their role model. They are very smart, just like most kids today. This is 2010 not 1960. Stop with this rubbish about role models. If any kid is going to take drugs because of Ben Cousins, then it’s the parents that have failed.
Richard, If Ben is an oxygen thief, then you really must be a waste of space. What a lot of rubbish you type.
September 1st 2010 @ 8:53am
Richard said | September 1st 2010 @ 8:53am | Report comment
Rosee, your comment doesn’t make sense. It lacks logic, your conclusion does not follow. You should try and think things through more.
September 1st 2010 @ 11:35am
Beast-A-Tron said | September 1st 2010 @ 11:35am | Report comment
So personal responsibility is illogical.
Interesting.
August 31st 2010 @ 10:00pm
Karlos said | August 31st 2010 @ 10:00pm | Report comment
I work with kids at a local high school and can say that they soak up much of what goes on around them in life and from TV and sports stars. Whilst it might be nice to think that kids are not influenced by Ben Cousins and the like, it simply is not true. Kids make decisions based on a number of factors and for many, being seen as hard core, cool and popular are the most important factors. Ben Cousins is seen as those things by the majority of kids who are already taking drugs or thinking about it in AFL dominated areas.
It is these kids not quite into using that can be and are tipped over the edge by outside influences like Ben Cousins’s drug taking. His drug taking is being seen by these kids as something that made Cousins a great player and many think drugs will make them great too. According to these kids, teachers and parents wouldn’t have a clue about drugs and only want to stop them having fun and being famous like Ben Cousins.
The media and AFL have made Cousins a celebrity for their own short term gains and Cousins has believed and supported them. The media made him a walking soap opera and the AFL turned a blind eye for many years. Cousins believes in his own fantasies and sees himself as a Ned Kelly type figure and so too do many of his supporters. For sensible people he will be seen as an idiot still chasing fame and popularity (the things he says he tried to stay away from) whilst 7 and the media generally will be seen as exploitive and damaging to Cousins and society.
September 1st 2010 @ 7:57am
anopinion said | September 1st 2010 @ 7:57am | Report comment
I too work in a school. I disagree with the notion that children are influenced by sporting stars.
Young people take in millions of stimuli each day. Parents, friends, weather, food, activities, tv and sport are just a few. To suggest that one behaviour by one person they see on tv will somehow shift the balance of that young persons behaviour is a nonsense. The human make up is far too complex for such a simple action to take place.