The lies and deceit that do exist are because we have agreed to try to uphold a belief that football players are role models and not normal human beings with normal struggles, which intermingles with our widespread societal ignorance towards the prevalence of drug use. No club will come out and say “a player has been pulled for testing positive to cocaine” because it would stigmatise that player, the competition and the club. Having it known your hamstring is pulled is fine. But revealing you have a substance issue? That’s too much, too difficult to dissect, too tough a conversation. Instead, we’d all rather dance around it. Saying “just don’t do drugs” is easier.
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But what really has me running to write about this is some of the language used about football players being role models, as if they have been deified and therefore are not allowed to be fallible. The message being peddled by some is that “you have to be an idiot to take drugs” – a statement so misguided in its lack of understanding about drug addiction that it could only come from the mouth of someone deeply unfit to speak on the topic.
A person with a substance-abuse problem is not someone you should dismiss as an idiot (even if it does make for a good soundbite or social media post), and being a professional athlete does not absolve you from the claws of addiction. A person’s unique circumstances, perhaps a childhood trauma, perhaps a mental health issue, factor in. Usually, it’s something far more complex than a perceived weakness about simply saying “No” to something when it’s offered.
I will be the first to take a swing at the AFL over many of its decisions. But in this instance, in allowing a player to be pulled from a game under medical supervision to avoid the full wrath of World Anti-Doping Agency testing (which comes with a ban of up to four years), the AFL has put the health and safety of the players first. Which is more than I can say for most others, who instead prioritise them being used as a form of entertainment, whether that be on the field, or as a punching bag in the headlines, or as a prerequisite to a terrible “white line fever” pun aired under parliamentary privilege.
Brandon Jack is an author, freelance writer and former Sydney Swans footballer.
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