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Brendan Fevola gets a hand pass away under pressure from Daniel Bradshaw during the AFL Women's Round 11 match between the Brisbane Lions and the Carlton Blues at the Gabba.The Slattery Media Group
Let’s be honest, Brendan Fevola isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed and his drunken Brownlow display was inappropriate. But does his behavior really warrant the media coverage it has received not to mention the growing calls for his dismissal from Carlton?
Yes, it was poor from someone with a heavily pregnant wife and an obligation to his club, league, fans and Channel 9 to act in a civilised manner, but the reality is he was doing what thousands of Australian men his age do on an average night out.
His folly was doing it in such a public forum with a microphone in hand and a camera in front of him.
Should he be crucified for that reason?
Fevola is the latest in a long line of footballers disgracing themselves with their off-field behaviour, but what has been fascinating is the public, media’s and codes’ reaction to these sagas and how the ‘crimes’ are becoming so much more mundane.
Without wanting to condone his behaviour, the reality is Fevola didn’t sexually assault, beat up or racially vilify anyone at the Brownlow. He was just acting like an idiot with a belly full of Crown Lager.
While people like Rebecca Wilson are entitled to their opinions, the media needs to reevaluate its new found role as moral adjudicator in every off-field indiscretion.
Remember the Tim Cahill saga? Did that warrant the front page of the Sunday Telegraph, with everything else that was going on in the world?
What’s worrying is the conviction in which editors justify their focus on the behaviour of footballers, as witnessed in this heated conversation between Alan Jones and Sunday Telegraph editor Neil Breen.
These athletes are role models but do these indiscretions really deserve such press?
Fevola may have acted like an idiot, but what of Channel 9 who gave the Carlton player the job of hosting ‘Street Talk’, a segment on the AFL Footy Show, knowing, if not expecting, he would deliver a drunken performance, as has been the case on that specific segment by others.
What’s odd is that Australians love their sporting larrikins and yet the modern day versions are being stifled out of existence.
We bemoan the lack of personalities and yet increasingly demand athletes tow the PR line and fit the mould of ‘role model’.
Do we really want our leading athletes to be one-dimensional puppets?
Take for example Kimi Raikkonen, the stoic Finnish Formula 1 driver whose press conferences are as monosyllabic as they come.
Raikkonen’s typical public persona hides a dry sense of humour which is rarely seen.
It’s a shame this dry wit is stifled by the corporate world of Formula 1 which desperately needs such personalities.
Yes, there is a difference between displaying a sense of humour and public drunkenness, but the continued blurring of what’s acceptable social behaviour from our athletes is what’s making them bland.
They are human and flawed like the rest of us.
Many footballers have forgone an education to pursue their careers and have lived in a bubble of a footy culture that, at its core, is still one big boys club in which such behaviour is lauded.
As a result some, like Fevola, have distorted views on societal expectations.
The codes and clubs cannot bear the responsibility of babysitting and it’s up to these athletes to ensure they behave according to societies norms.
But to continually chastise them with trial through the media is setting a very dangerous precedent, especially with the power the media has in such cases, and how the clubs and codes react in such a submissive way.
Fevola needs to be educated, to understand the boundaries and expectations on him, but to call for his head seems harsh.