Football seemingly has no shame when it comes to these sorry episodes. The whole footballing world seems to live in an alternative world from the rest of us, and the sports media are partly to blame also.
If a player has been done for racism (John Terry) or is involved in some tawdry sex scandal (Ryan Giggs, Rio Ferdinand) or convicted of GBH (Joey Barton), the sports media revel in trivialising it - a 40 yard screamer into the top right hand corner of the net is enough for the player to 'redeem' himself and thus saint-like status is reclaimed.
But forgetting the shoddy journalism for a minute, football squads need to take a long hard look at themselves and the culture that surrounds them. This macho, 'lad' culture that predominates football always steps into dangerous territory, creating a comfort zone where sexism is postively encouraged rather than scorned until it is taken too far when some innocent young girl is humiliated - or in this case - assaulted. And the worrying thing is - many of them can't see what they've done wrong, seeing no difference between what is seen as 'being a lad' and rape.
It looks likes Ched Evans is guilty of falling into this trap like so many others. People like Evans are part of the problem, and his actions are not just merely an isolated incident in football, but indicative of a wider problem in the sport.
Whether or not you think he was guilty is irrelevant - the bottom line is the courts found him guilty and, anyway, his treatment of the girl was disgraceful whether you think he was guilty or not. He hasn't shown remorse for his disgraceful actions anyhow and thinks he's done absolutely nothing wrong. The guy should never be allowed to play football again - it would at least send out a message as to how serious a problem this is, and for a start, might make other footballers consider their actions.
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