By Jonathan Stockham
April 17 2015

The Long View

Six Nations Rugby! What an ending, what a finale!

As a Scot, I was just a wee bit embarrassed on winning yet another Wooden Spoon when our early tournament promise turned to just another Culloden. (Cue sad bagpipe laments).

But wasn’t it exciting and the way the final day shaped up was quite a thrill. The Irish team must have felt it was just like a wedding in County Kerry. You all hang around for ages in your smartest Sunday suit, getting as pished as an eejit before the ceremony even starts, wondering if the bride is even going to turn up! Then you eventually get your hands on the prize (in this case, the 6N Trophy and not Mary O’Flaherty) and get pished even more!

For England, there was no point in blaming anyone but themselves for not quite doing enough to win the Championship and churlish comments from the likes of Mike Brown that the Scots deliberately lost to Ireland just to annoy the English can only be charitably put down to his recent well-publicised concussion. Which is actually a very serious concern.

Our own George North has suffered, as we are all aware, too many bumps on the head since the start of the season for it to be ignored or quietly swept under the carpet. At least he has a month off now to recover. Mike Brown himself keeps getting symptoms arising from the concussion he suffered playing for England against Italy earlier this year and the longer they take to go away, the greater the worry that they will bring a player’s career to an end.

Even the safety-obsessed merry go round that is Formula 1 is not immune. Despite the driver protection systems now mandatory on racing cars, Fernando Alonso had to miss the start of the Grand Prix season to recover from concussion after what looked like a fairly innocuous crash whilst testing his new McLaren F1 at Barcelona. But after two days in ITU and then reportedly suffering from being disorientated and forgetful, this clearly points to there being something wrong in the noddle department.

The biggest worry, however, is surely the long term damage. Millions of dollars are already being paid out to former American Football players who are suffering significant brain function impairment due to multiple collisions on the gridiron. But one of the saddest stories has to be that of West Bromwich Albion footballer, Jeff Astle, who passed away in 2002 at the age of only 59. At his inquest, the Coroner ruled that he had suffered “death by industrial disease”, his brain damaged by the repeated heading of heavy leather footballs. Astle had suffered not from Alzheimer’s disease, but a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found commonly in boxers. Subsequent analysis revealed that his brain resembled that of a 90 year old when he died and he spent the last 4 years of his life unable to remember anything about his time as the footballer who scored the winning goal for West Brom in the 1968 Cup Final against Everton.

And here’s the thing. Add up the multiple bangs to the head, concussive or otherwise, that rugby players, especially forwards, suffer week in week out. Add up the damage to brains from collisions and tackles, big hits or accidental kicks to the head at the bottom of a ruck. Add on the risk of neck fractures, broken bones or damaged joints and those of us who watch from the sidelines, encouraging our heroes to run faster, jump higher, kick longer and hit harder can only marvel at the courage of players for whom the next collision might be the last.

Talking of heroes, what happens when they let you down...big time? We’ll all have people we place on a pedestal as heroes; sportsman, celebrities, national leaders, the fireman who rescued the cat from a tree .... but when they turn out to be mere mortals with all the faults and failings of the rest of us, well MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT!

Lance Armstrong was mine. I believed! I argued till the cows came home that he was riding clean in all those Tour de France victories. He was superhuman it seemed. Recovered from testicular cancer to be the best bike racer in the world was the stuff of the Boys Own Annual. And then, and then....

When the news broke that he was a bullying team leader and long time drugs cheat, I was shocked, then hugely disappointed and then angry. Really, really angry! How could he have fooled so many of us? I mean millions of us! All over the world!

From hero to zero, in an instant. Never forgotten, never forgiven either.

Dean Richards for Bloodgate?

Rolf Harris? Stuart Hall?

Dwain Chambers in athletics?

Still, there are a few good ‘uns around we can look up to. Sir Chris Hoy will fine do for me thanks.

And finally, thank you and goodbye to Richie Benaud who has finally departed the crease. One of those rare characters who had played his sport at the highest level before becoming a commentator of unparalleled quality.

Benaud was the first cricketer to reach 200 test wickets and 2000 test runs. In total over his career, he notched up 945 wickets in 259 first-class matches, as well as 11,719 first-class runs, scoring 23 centuries at an average of 36.50.

As a commentator, he was an exponent of the same “less is more” school as Barry Davies or John Arlott. The voice of so many summers...

On reflection, there's 3 names to put up in the “Heroes” category.