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Martin Devlin: There was nothing wrong with Alex Morgan's goal celebration

Author
Martin Devlin,
Publish Date
Fri, 5 Jul 2019, 11:57AM

Martin Devlin: There was nothing wrong with Alex Morgan's goal celebration

Author
Martin Devlin,
Publish Date
Fri, 5 Jul 2019, 11:57AM

Well over 400 years ago William Shakespeare wrote a play called "Much ado about nothing". The phrase meaning a big fat fuss being made about something most would consider pretty trivial, e.g. getting the whole office running round in a panic because Mr Important has misplaced his car keys - and I mean misplaced as opposed to lost.

The phrase is perfect for describing the over-reaction surrounding US women's footballer Alex Morgan and her goal celebration vs England in the women's world cup semi-final.

After scoring the second, and subsequent winner, Morgan put her fingers  to her lips imitating the drinking of a cup of tea, a gesture obviously aimed at the general culture stereotyping surrounding her opponents.

Big bloody deal - or not? 

To those who wish to create excess noise about things most of us don't care about it's the single most unsportsmanlike gesture in sport since George Gregan sneered "4 more years boys, 4 more years" in that '03 WC semi.

For the rest of us it's nothing more than a big "so what".

No, I'm not English, so maybe I'm missing the essence of the perceived insult, or maybe I'm just completely normal and fail to see how something that looked so cheeky and fun can be equally mis-interpreted as to so massively offend.

What is wrong with people? Or maybe that should read what is wrong with these people? Because we seem to live in a world now where the shouty-loudest brigade get so instantly irate and offended on behalf of someone else they feel should be offended. Most Pommy football fans I know thought it was funny. 

At the time as easy to stomach as any semi-final loss, but on reflection certainly nothing post-match to get overly annoyed about.

Those of us who do remember long lost times lament the days when many more athletes  seem to have had, and expressed, their own personality's. These days the rapid influx of PR fluffers and management team faffers have successfully sterilised most sports turning their stars into walking cliches very rarely if ever offering anything insightful or interesting.

Alex Morgan scored a goal and in the heat of the moment stopped to celebrate by drinking a pretend cup of English tea.

There is nothing wrong with what she did, only something wrong with anyone who thinks there should be. 

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