majortinkle
Premiership Player
- Jul 21, 2015
- 3,028
- 4,120
- AFL Club
- St Kilda
Reminds me of one of my favourite sportsman quotes. Presenter to epl player - what would you be if you weren’t a footballer. His reply - a virgin.I actually agree with you on the being wary stuff.
One thing that really changed my thinking was when I was 18 I lived in a house with 2 listed players for another club (my dad was mate's with a family that hosted new draftees, gave them meals etc. so I got the same deal for a year). The thing is, most of these draftees are just naive kids, more naive than the average 18 year old. The world they get thrown into with drink-cards, nightclubs etc. is a shock for most of them. I'll never forget my housemates, as a joke at a nightclub we were at, introducing me as a new recruit to a few of the well known groupies there. My god, the grilling they gave me "what position do you play, what number are you, we haven't seen you etc." made you realise how calculating they were and how they really target a lot of these players in a systematic way knowing exactly what they want.
Yes, a lot of the players aren't angels but the groupies are certainly not innocent victims either. A lot of these young blokes just happen to be good at footy and their social skills are quite poor. The chances of them spotting a Duthie type early and keeping clear of her are pretty low. It's one thing preaching for them to be careful but we have to be realistic here. If the average person on the street can be manipulated by prince/princess charming on a regular basis, what chance do some footballers have? Like I said in an earlier post, in this day and age with social media like it is, we will need laws to protect us from a lot of the damage scorned and unstable exes and others can do to reputations on social media. The sooner they come in the better.