Ring of Truth

Many sport stars are given an unfair reputation for being slightly thick at times. There are actually plenty of bright and intelligent athletes and players but make no mistake, there are loads of muppets. A classic example today. Florent Malouda took around three minutes to remove his wedding ring in the first half of the game and had to stay off the pitch until he could get it off. Had Everton scored during that period and I was Carlo Ancelotti, I would have been absolutely furious with Malouda. Rules prohibiting jewellery on the football pitch are hardly new – heck I remember it being one of the first things I was told when I was a junior. As you can see in the picture, front row second from the left, no sign of any rings or necklaces on junior Bobby….just a goofy Everton sweatband.

It also reminded me of one of the funniest comments I have heard while working on a Champions League game. On the morning of all matches in UEFA competitions, an organisational meeting is held between officials and team representatives. One of the instructions from the referee is to ask the representatives to remind their players that jewellery on the pitch is forbidden. The referee at one particular game asked the club representatives to tell the players to just think of it as going to a nightclub and that should help them remember to take their rings off!

I have mentioned in a previous blog that I would hate to be a referee and I have absolute respect for those that do it. I have met a fair few referees and I have yet to come across a bad guy. Seeing them after the games is a real eye opener in that they are physically and mentally more drained than the players. I love having a degree of intensity and pressure in my daily life, but every decision they make is under huge scrutiny and they are only human after all….despite what people say. Knowing you are going to have a coach hammering you after the match, fans screaming obscenities at you during the game, and if you read the newspapers or the internet, you may well be the headline act….that cannot be easy. What does not help is players blatantly trying to cheat, being disrespectful and vehemently complaining about things when so many times they are in the wrong. I would have loved to have seen what would have happened had Everton scored when Malouda was off the pitch and he would have had nobody to blame other than himself.

Amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic

Laying there on the cold hard surface looking at the stars in the sky. My young hockey career may be over before it has even started. This was not the way it was supposed to end. The silence was deafening, the sensation was numbness. Bobby Ovechkin had gotten a little excitable and over-confident and one slip and crack of the head brought me right back to reality – the local Leeds headlines read Bambi Ovechkin.

I think many of us are bad losers and hate to admit failure. I do my very best to try and hide it, but it is true enough. I skated once at Bradford ice rink when I was 14 – somebody told me it was a cool thing to do and a great place to take the girls. Nobody told me that if you have the balance and coordination of one-legged baboon, that would not be so cool if you invited your first girlfriend. I said to myself that day that I would never skate again. It was something that I was bad at and I could not accept it.

Well, fast forward around 15 years or so and Bambi received a set of ice skates for my 30th birthday from one of my favourite couples. A great gesture and it spurred me to get back on the ice. I skated once last year but this year I have been on the ice several times and it is gradually getting easier. Apart from the one severe crack on the head which clearly did not knock enough sense into me, I will continue to practise to hopefully get to a level where I can hold a stick and shoot a puck.

I am actually determined to master it now or at least be able to skate properly. NHL is unlikely now I guess, but I’m further on than 15 years ago. I guess failure or a lack of understanding and knowledge of something makes many of us avoid confronting a situation – whether it is eating a new food, trying to speak a foreign language in public, wearing a V-neck sweater or learning to skate. When I was younger I never had the confidence or the cojones to try some things. Folks often say kids will try anything and throw themselves into things. That is not always the case, and it wasn’t much for me. I was hardly a choir boy, and I got into plenty of mischief, but I always had reluctance with certain stuff. Ice Skating and Ice Hockey is a challenge for me now.

For my 31st birthday, I received a pair of skis from an equally generous couple! I am making my debut next week in Zermatt – hard to believe given that I have spent four years in Canada and Switzerland. So basically, the moral of the story is if you have any friends who have birthdays coming up, buy them some equipment or book an activity for something they have never done before and you should shame them into trying it. The fact is, I would do neither of the two if I was left to my own devices, and I am glad I am giving both of them a go. This may of course be my last blog, so wait until the end of next weekend to see if you should recommend skiing.