In Defence Of Ben Thatcher (Sort Of)
Filed in archive Premiership 2006/7 on August 28, 2006
The vilification of Ben Thatcher is getting silly. Yes it was a nasty, reckless challenge but talk of police action and law suits and even terminating Thatcher's contract is madness.
The challenge was unnecessarily aggressive and mostly indefensible, but seems to me that Thatcher is being judged not by his actions but by the result of his actions. It's terrible (and a bit scary) that Mendes was out cold and needed hospital treatment but if Thatcher's wild elbow had connected an inch higher, lower, to the left or to the right, Mendes might have gotten straight back up.
The controversy surrounding Dermot Gallagher's decision to show Thatcher yellow instead of red (a decision for which Gallagher has been punished) is similarly outside of Thatcher's control. If Thatcher had been sent off, the whole thing might have gone away by now, and it's not the English/Welshman's fault that Gallagher was feeling impossibly liberal that day.
Tags: soccer football ben thatcher ben+thatcher video home defence+thatcher
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Attacking someone's head with a raised elbow at that pace is not "unnecessarily aggressive and mostly indefensible" it is a premeditated vicious assault.
My love for the game is less because of it. The game is less because of it. If the 'just wait until people get bored and look away' approach is adopted with this then I think the game is permanently damaged by it.
