Joe Brolly tells Stephen Hunt that his "head is up his arse"
Joe Brolly
Writing in his column in the Gaelic Life, former All-Ireland winner Joe Brolly has had another swipe at Stephen Hunt over his article in last week's Sunday Independent.
Hunt attracted widespread debate in his Sunday Independent column last weekend when he suggested that GAA players wouldn't know what hit them if they tried to live with the same level of commitment as professional soccer players.
Hunt was reacting to a comment made by Brolly a couple of weeks ago when the outspoken pundit claimed that professional footballers are not role models.
In his article last week, the Ipswich Town winger claimed that he was convinced that a groin injury he was nursing before Euro 2012 may have been a figment of his imagination.
Commenting on this, Brolly wrote: "The Hunt interview continued with another simply heart rending tale. Stephen told how he thought the injury he picked up before Ireland’s last major tournament might have been a product of his own imagination. Given that his head is so far up his arse, it was an entirely reasonable thought."
One of the points Hunt made last week that Brolly took issue with today was that GAA players would struggle to cope with the levels of rest needed to be a professional footballer and gave the example that he always drove the 800 yards to the training ground.
"The thought of Stephen having to drive 2/3 of a mile to training in his Ferrari will bring a lump to the throat of all right thinking people," Brolly continued.
"I remember in and around 2002 when it emerged in a TV profile that Enda Muldoon was driving a 25cc scooter every morning from his house, up the lane 200 yards to McGucken’s furniture factory, it almost forced Terry into increasing his salary. I have seen that scooter myself and it made Pope Francis’ car look like a Rolls Royce."
Brolly also had an issue with Hunt's assertion that he had claimed that footballers were not role models and claimed that convicted rapist Ched Evans would be back playing football if he was a top class player.
"The idea that they are role models has become a cliché, albeit a ludicrous one," he added.
"This was illustrated recently in the furore over the Welsh soccer player who having served his prison sentence, has been hounded out of a new contract at Sheffield United, because “soccer players are role models.”
"If he were an Eric Cantona, or a Roy Keane, he would have been back in the first team even as the prison gate was clanging shut behind him. But this guy wasn’t worth the bad press."
Read the entire Gaelic Life column here.
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