Last week Andy Gray was involved in a huge scandal… when it was revealed that he used to be paid £1.7million per year to… erm… talk about football. Along with Richard Keys, he was also involved in a sexism scandal, and what with a sexism scandal being bigger than a sex scandal it was promptly pronounced the “scandal of the year so far” – which is hardly a great accolade given that it occurred during January.
The sexism scandal erupted after Gray and Keys were caught off camera, and indeed off guard, making comments about the female assistant referee (formerly linesman) Sian Massey. Gray and Keys suggested that it was ridiculous that a woman was running the line as woman don’t know the offside rule, a rule which isn’t that tricky to understand anyway – a few of my friends explained it to me in the pub the other day and it involves a pint glass being nearer to the edge of the table than an ashtray, as long as it is behind or level with a beermat.
Gray and Keys were eventually sacked/resigned before they were sacked, after new footage of them making sexist comments emerged, but they are not alone in making sexist remarks on television: for example I really like Loose Women… however, I severely detest the idle gossip of the television show with the same name, some of which could be taken as sexist towards men.
The new footage of Gray showed him asking a female presenter to tuck his shirt in for him and this was enough to get him sacked… he most certainly was not sacked from Sky Sports (a brand name of BSkyB – owed by Rupert Murdoch) for allegedly taking legal action against the News of the World (part of the News International Group – owned by Rupert Murdoch) with respect to the phone hacking scandal – anyone who makes such a suggestion can be on very rocky legal ground. As such, I am glad that I have categorically stated that that was not the reason Andy Gray was sacked from Sky Sports.
Keys on the other hand eventually resigned [because he was about to get sacked and] after new footage came to light of him asking Jamie Redknapp if he had “smashed it” and made a reference to “hanging out the back” of a woman. It was viewed as sexist that Keys referred to a woman as “it”, although quite clearly the “it” in “smashing it” refer not to her, but to her… erm… “women’s area” – a place which Keys would ironically say is nowhere near a football pitch.
It does seems strange that Keys uses the phrase “smashing it”, implying an element of brutality and aggression and he then follows it up with the phrase “hanging out the back of” suggesting that Redknapp would merely place his cock inside the unnamed woman and just… well… leave it there – but to be fair, Redknapp may be too worn out after spending all of his spare time “smashing it”… and solving the mystery of why his dad believes that Peter Crouch is a good football player.
I suppose that the comments made by Gray and Keys went some way to proving that age old saying that football is a game of two half… wits. But their comments were pale in comparison to the infamous comments made by Ron Atkinson when he called the then Chelsea defender Marcel Desailly a “lazy thick nigger” – perhaps in hindsight I probably shouldn’t have just used the phrase “pale in comparison”…
Credit given where it’s due to Atkinson, he chose not to scrape the barrel and highlight the work that he did for black footballers during his tenure as manager of West Bromwich Albion – in a “I’m not racist, some of my best friends are black” kind of way. He simply offered the explanation that he was not aware that the microphone was switched on – which is a perfectly plausible excuse that could have been used at any point during Atkinson’s commentary career.
Atkinson appreciated that his comments were unacceptable, the same couldn’t have been said of Jimmy Hill, who came out in defence of Atkinson, claiming that the word “nigger” was part of the football culture and what Ron Atkinson said was no more offensive than when Hill is referred to as “chinny” – so called because of his rather large chin, which apparently can now be seen on Google Earth, as can the local farmers’ fields which get ploughed whenever Hill walks though them.
Whilst Hill is clearly affected by such comments (although I’d advise him to just take them on the chin…) I do think he’s missed the point to some extent, perhaps if I was to open the paper and see reports of a man being horrifically attacked in a chin related incident, then his words may have carried some substance. On a similar note, if America in the 1960s had been awash with the “chin riots” and Martin Luther King had a dream about “little boys and girls with big chins being able to join hands with little boys and girls with normal-sized chins” then Hill’s defence of Atkinson may have being more justified – and Martin Luther King would be a bit weird... *
Unfortunately for Hill, there is no uprising led by the likes of Jay Leno and Bruce Forsyth and accordingly people will still make snide remarks about chins. But within calling him “chinny” there is no slur on his ability to do his job. As where Andy Gray and Richard Keys’ comments were doing exactly that to Sian Massey, commenting on her ability to do her job with a reference to a ridiculous stereotype. We shouldn’t forget that women have had to flight a long struggled to get equality and were only allowed to vote in the UK in 1928 – I suppose their ability to vote is now apparent with us having a hung Parliament… bloody women… always dithering on the big issues…
So as where Atkinson looked as competent as Mr Bean and Hill left himself a mountain to climb; Gray showed that he could only see things in black & white and Keys unlocked the portal that sent his career into freefall mode – on a temporary basis, he and Gray will probably be commentating on ESPN come the new season. People in the public eye should be careful, the Orwellian concept of Big Brother appears to be rampant, yet the Thought Police aren’t quite as active at the moment – they have probably bore the brunt of the Government’s cuts in this period of austerity. As such, if you are about to offend, then it may be better to keep your views to yourself.
But presumably Keys and Gray were given a nice send off by Sky Sports, their colleagues apparently held a big party for them… Keys and Gray were dressed smart for the occasion – albeit Gray with a little assistance in terms of getting tucked in… and there were good times with the female presenters from Sky Sports News – who are most definitely employed due to their ability to read the news and understand sport… and Keys and Gray were even given a bakewell tart… “bake well tart,” one of the scoffed… “that’s an instruction I give to my wife”…
* Absolutely nothing to do with the ‘blog per se, but when I was in Next a few months ago I saw a bathroom loofah, which was one single white loofah and the packaging referred to it as “Martin Loofah King”… I’m not really sure of that is the best way to honour one of the greatest civil rights campaigners ever to have existed. I’m guessing it probably isn’t; and in any event, I would question the symbolism of having just one white loofah, surely Martin Luther King would have preferred a 2-pack of loofahs – with one white loofah and one black loofah, just a thought…
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