Why the recent Sydney Swans sex assault allegations are making a career in football look less appealing to sport loving parents and their sporty kids
Oh to be a football star in Australia today. You really must feel like you rule the roost. After all the hard practise and training, and the big games under the spotlight, it might seem natural that the big boys would want to party hard – drink up, drug up, dance up, sex up. But then a lot of that drinking and drugging and sexing has gotten our football stars into trouble, so who to turn to to keep the party going, and assume you’re not going to get into strife for it? Prostitutes, incorrectly presumed a bunch of footballers recently. But when they aren’t up for the risky sex shenanigans… well, what can the party boys do? Furthermore, what’s the point of being a big football star in the end if the sex perks aren’t part of the game anymore? I don’t think these guys wanted to become big sports stars to get joy out of signing autographs after the big game, when they’re hot, sweaty and tired? It might just be for the playing and winning of the game itself but, come on, all stars know that when they reach a certain status, certain liberties often come with it.
One important distinction first: the five Sydney Swans players – Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordon and Riley Bice – have not been charged with sexual assault, and it would be wrong to state that they committed one. Victoria Police are investigating an alleged sexual assault at Melbourne’s Pullman Hotel – perhaps with one, or with all, or with none of the players involved. We’ll leave them up to their investigating.
But Heeney, Warner, Blakey, Jordon and Bice have all been suspended by the Swans for the rest of the AFL season for breaching club standards, independently of the police investigation, so their coaches and managers must know they’ve done something wrong – or indeed are just following PR procedure and wanting to keep the team looking clean when you and I both know football teams never really are.
The reported conduct involved staying out until the early hours after the Swans’ win over Essendon, drinking, partying in a hotel room, and bringing two female exotic “dancers” into the room to join them.
One woman has alleged that she was subjected to unwanted sexual behaviour. There are also reports that cocaine and ketamine may have been consumed in the room, but the players have denied taking drugs and reportedly were not drug-tested. So, no, the established reporting does not say that the players were taking drugs “on” the women, or that the women were taking drugs “on” the players. Those are separate allegations/reports that have become muddled together online.
Still, big partying is par for the course when it comes to big celebrities, and in Australia, football celebs are massive, huge, iconic, role models for the young ‘uns, supposedly. So when the big fall, they fall hard, or at least the sponsors and commercial partners start dropping off like flies.
There’s been major sponsorship dropout since the allegations surfaced about Heeney, Warner, Blakey, Jordon and Bice going too far during party-time and sexy-time. Nike, Colgate-Palmolive, Telstra, Volkswagen and Australian Red Cross Lifeblood have all paused, suspended or withdrawn particular cross-branding activities or relationships with the team. Transport for NSW has also suspended its Swans campaign, while QBE and realestate.com.au have expressed serious concern but, at the latest reporting, had not withdrawn their sponsorships.
Let’s admit it, celebrities often have a habit of thinking they are holier than though, above the rules, indispensable, perhaps even invincible. With footballers in particular, it’s driven into them during training so as to up the adrenalin and motivation pre and during the game. That brainwashing by coaches and managers that they are the big boys, the winners, the toughest, the spunkiest, the heroes… that might just leak into their thinking in other areas of life, including during their leisure time. Work tough, play tough. But it’s incidents like these that are likely to plant seeds of doubt in the tough players’ egos. Add to that the sensitive subjects of sexism, rape and/or abuse, and football is just not as fun a sport as it’s cut out to be – for the players at least.
Being a big sports star once came with excess benefits, including getting away with treating others like dirt. In fact, celebrity as a whole once had the connotation of icons being untouchable and above the law or common morality.
When the Sydney Swans players introduced themselves to the call girls, they pretended they were tradies – carpenters, to be specific – according to 7NEWS sport reporter Tom Morris. And the ABC reported that several adult entertainers were understood to have attended the hotel the football players were staying at and that a deal was made for players to pay extra to consume cocaine off the women’s breasts and bums.
It’s the kind of activity a player might love to tell the other guys about in the locker room, but for Mum to now know? My guess is that if there’s any fallout from this incident, it’s that ‘footballer’ isn’t going to be as popular a choice of career that parents are going to want to push their offspring toward. And I reckon less kdis are going to want to grow up being a famous footballer because there’s just so much unwanted focus on your life, both on and off the field. Who wants all that scrutiny? Even if you’re a good bloke and just happen to be hanging around with some of the troublemakers on occasion, you can still get into lots of trouble.
With fine lines easily crossed during downtime, I wouldn’t be surprised if these guys thought it might safer if they got paid prostitutes involved in their hard partying. There might have been a no-holds-barred attitude in the air, along with the scent of amyl nitrate and half-cooked ketamine.
But female prostitutes are human, too, and there are fine lines that you should not cross with these women either, even if their line of work is to provide exotic pleasure. Clouds of misjudgment can easily come out of cramped rooms when the air itself is fogged up with ego and excess drug-taking. Soon, these lads will need managers and coaches overlooking them while they’re enjoying a lap dance. Or maybe that’s already happening. Big money can often hide the smaller details.
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