By Larry Canning
I’ve just read the National Rugby League have taken a strong stance on any players who ‘potty mouth’ on the field!
I played one game of Rugby League when I was 12 years old. I was running down the right wing with the pill clasped firmly against my right chest, try line in sight and just one defender left to elude with my wily sidestep when out of nowhere some kid I didn’t see launches himself at my legs and I go down like a bag of cement. My face was a mixture of blood from my rather large proboscis and mud from the one small puddle on the ground. I looked like an extra from “Saving Private Ryan”. I remember when I could get some of the wind back into my lungs I burst into verbal abuse of everyone from the tackler to the curator and even to my shorts which were clearly slowing me down. In my wildest dreams I can’t envisage what it must be like to have this happen 30 times in 80 minutes by someone like Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and then somehow get back on your feet without swearing.
I have to say, if some of the toughest dudes on the planet who are engaging in a sport where the purpose is to use any legal force at their disposal to wrestle an opponent to the ground while running at full speed, are now being fined and penalized for swearing, then professional golfers surely can cop the same punishment. Aaaah but wait readers, fact is they are fined. It’s just that the PGA tours around the world don’t want talk about it.
In a piece written over 10 years ago in a Golf Channel publication, John Feinstein refers to a 35 year old Tiger Woods swearing and throwing clubs and how he was, allegedly, the most fined player in the history of the PGA Tour. This information apparently came from some of the other players, not the officials.
Of course the question of how Tiger Woods can’t even walk to his motel room, or someone else’s room for that matter, without the entire world watching, has to be a major factor in this not so glamorous accomplishment. He was quite literally the most watched athlete either live or on TV at the time so he is going to be caught throwing clubs and yelling things, starting with the same letter but not including “Fore!” more than any other player.
Ironically the column refers to an incident where Tiger was fined, not for tossing a driver down the fairway after just missing the same part of the course with his ball or blurting out some type of profanity, he was pegged for spitting on a green. It was a DP World Tour event in Dubai and he was busted propelling a vile globule onto the 12th green.
In the year 2023 do we as a society need to re-address what words are seen as offensive? There’s not a TV show or movie I watch where swearing isn’t part of the script but I still flinch when I hear someone use expletives in a public place if there is an elderly person within earshot. I remember how I used to feel when I was somewhere with my Mum and someone near us was constantly using bad language. I tried desperately not to swear in front of my mother so why should I put up with someone else not even trying.
At this point I should probably point out that if you ask any of my golfing mates if I ever swore on a golf course, they would themselves use every word in the “Crude Word Dictionary” and firmly place “Q#&*%!” in front of – Yes!! And yes I have tossed clubs all over the world. I know there is no excuse for this however I do try not to do it when there is someone present who might take offence and the amount of fans coming to watch me play was a few less than Tiger at his peak.
I was part of the team on Luke Bona’s Man Cave Show on Triple M recently and the subject of speeding fines in other parts of the world were measured. It turns out in Finland, speeding fines are calculated on the driver’s daily income! According to an ABC News article, an Anders Wiklof was fined $195,000 for breaking the speed limit by being clocked doing 82 KPH in a 50 KPH zone. Speaking to the main newspaper of the Aaland Islands in the Baltic Sea, (yes I know, this yarn is getting weirder and weirder isn’t it?), without a sniff of swearing, Anders was quoted saying “I really regret this matter”.
So my long winded question to all reading is – Is there now a need to not only bump up the fines imposed for tour players being caught swearing but should there be a penalty imposed on the players scorecard as well?
I know the NRL are mostly chastising players who use profanities to quiz a referee on a decision but I applaud them for taking this stance.
I look forward to hearing from anyone with an opinion on this… In fact I look forward to hearing that anyone who actually reads my stuff.
