Real Football

[allenlondon]

I’ve long dismissed football as just part of the ‘bread and circuses’ that our establishment doles out to keep us quiet, but reading a New Statesman article by Robert Coll has convinced me otherwise.

Here is a sample paragraph about Bob Charlton (senior).

While his sons were sharing England’s greatest sporting triumph 300 miles away at Wembley Stadium, Dan Jackson tells us that Bob was cutting coal at Linton Colliery. In other words, it was not only that the nation was rendered more real by the men in red but, in this case, that the men in red were rendered more real by a Northumbrian pitman 400 feet underground who knew his worth (and theirs). All sport has a second life in the stories it tells, and in this one Bob Charlton stood for the lads just as surely as the lads stood for him.

Moves me to tears.

Not saying I see ‘real football’ as connected to the overpaid prima donnas who prance around these days, but darn me, I’m starting to get it.

[ToraToraTora]

couldn't agree more allen, Football has become a game for prancing prannies pretending they are injured. Here's a video to illustrate it perfectly: https://streamable.com/k437bo

[aelmpvw]

i knew a footballer in the 60's who played for England, when he retired he was pleased to get a milk round for a living, wouldn't happen now would it?

[allenlondon]

I was a ballboy at Romford FC when Ted Ditchburn (Spurs and England) played for them in his later years. A fine sportsman, he acknowledged us lowly ballboys, when of course he didn’t need to.

Retired, ran a sports shop for many years in Romford.

Different times; better times.