Beware false idols like Andrew Johns (and Brad Goodman)
I used to get a bit pissy seeing various footy blockheads from the codes (no, soccer doesn't count, thanks for asking) arrested for various physical assaults, especially against women, indecent public displays and other bogantastic behaviour.Then it dawned on me - the footballers aren't entirely the problem.
If Ben Cousins wants to have a Tina addiction, let him (shame though, given how delish he is when he's, you know, upright and conscious).
If Andrew Joey Joe Johns Junior Shabidoo wants to feel ecstatic, Kath Day Knight style, power to him.
No, I'm not encouraging life-threatening substance abuse. But I am pointing out that self-harm, as opposed to getting into a punch-up with pubgoers post-match or forcing yourself onto female flight attendants, is just that - self-harm. Nobody else suffers.
The only reason why these particular men's substance problems is news is because they play top-grade football - which, in Australia, is akin to walking on water. Many blokes with absolutely no otherwise discernible talents, brains or social skills are elevated to role models because of our country's obsession with sport. Those who do have a brain somewhere inside their pummeled skulls usually know better than to get involved with the fights, drugs, sexual harassment and other shenanigans of their less evolved peers.
But when they are caught out, the meeja seems to treat it as a personal betrayal. It's like they've arrived home one evening and caught their husband Andrew Johns in bed with another man. For what? Popping pills.
It sounds (or the Newcastle Knights doctors are spinning it) as though his arrest in London is symptomatic of a long-term battle with depression in which drugs play an unhealthy part, in which case he has my sympathies and best wishes to get past it. But who said he had to be such a massively significant role model? The guy plays football. He's not publicly elected, he's not responsible for public funding, he's not working on a cure for cancer and far as I know he hasn't made an extra-curricular career campaigning against drugs. He's just unfortunately subject to an insanely disproportionate level of media scrutiny because some consider him to be the greatest living League player.
Front-page news if the captain of the Opals (Oz women's basketball team) happened to be caught with an ecky pill somewhere in Europe? Doubt it. Front-page news if Andrew Johns broke wind in church? Hell yeah.
Until such time as we get past our obsession with idolising football players, we'll continue to mould false masculine role models out of many blokes who'd most likely be in prison if they didn't happen to be good at footy. I know I'm a big pansy for saying this, but I really wish more young guys would look up to actors, writers, judges, artists, editors (heh, yeah I know that's optimistic), doctors, human rights campaigners - men who actually contribute positively to making the world a smarter place.
It's not that footy doesn't have its place. The world does need hot, mostly straight guys in microscopic tops and shorts getting homoerotic with one another before thousands of screaming fans - that's just a given. And seriously, if football is an outlet for some young boys to get away from their impoverished lives, as is sometimes the case with indigenous guys (who may not have the luxury of knowing about artists, writers etc), then it's playing a vitally important role.
But ffs people - Andrew Johns is not your husband, father or brother. He hasn't assaulted anybody or commited any crime that directly and adversely affects anybody else other than himself (and of course, his *actual* family and *real*, not vicarious friends). Let the bloke have some privacy to work on his issues and please keep in perspective what he does in the context of the planet's continued operation. It ain't that big.
Labels: Andrew Johns, drugs, football, meeja
posted by Sam @ Friday, August 31, 2007
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