Mintball wrote:
Nobody's obsessed with, say, RL? Don't forget that, when Terry Newton died, it became verboten to discuss anything bad he'd done in his career – and that's actually an entirely relevant point within he context of this thread.
I doubt it very much. It was mostly a social media response and then was reported on by the mainstream media. I didn't see it being used to suddenly pretend that all football fans were some sort of angels.
Understandable.
I'd agree with this.
And support for monarchism as a whole is probably less, which rather ruins your point, I'm afraid.
There maybe less support for it with those who could take it or leave it but I think those who do support it are as fervent as ever if not more so and the whole jubilee thing and the recent Royal marriage will be seen by the monarchists as some sort of rehabilitation of the brand.
The Terry Newton thing is an interesting point. I was never a great fan of his as a Wigan player. I always felt he would do something daft that would cost us an important game but that view was not popular long before he died. He was a player who wore his heart on his sleeve and that type of player always gets many fans on side. I used to regularly make my views known that I felt he was a bit of a liability and this was usually jumped on by my fellow Wigan fans. So I am not entirely convinced that attitudes after his death were that far removed from what they were when he was a Wigan player. He was always on a pedestal for some. Had he been an anonymous player with no reputation and yet it was then verboten to discuss anything he had done in his career after he died, then I think you may have had a point there.
As to Muamba I don't see that it matters if it was a social media response or not in terms of any motives (good or not) for the responses to his heart attack. In fact all the various different types of social media we have these days such as Twitter and Facebook make it far easier for bandwagon's to roll. The fact there have been public displays of support for the player in grounds across Europe probably could not have happened without the social media aspect and while I am sure many fans were genuine I can't help thinking there will have been at least some "lets show everyone how nice football is" behind some of it and a certain amount of self congratulation at the reactions as well.
