Dignity in death - a footballer's guide

[Starfish]

it was not as if Lampard ran over to the bench to parade a Chelsea shirt saying RIP MUM

LOL.

[Hahnemann's Hairdresser]

I thought that he just pointed at the SKY! Oh well. I look forward to a string of similar celebrations. What next? RIP Rex on a Manchester United shirt when Rooney's dog dies?

To be fair, you'd do well to spot Lampard in that photo - he wasn't playing in that game & it was his team mates who (chances are never even met Pat Lampard) made the shirt tribute. If anything that photo emphasises your point.

The thing that I don't get about the Fabregas tribute is that he did it when celebrating his second goal didn't he? Evidently the necessity to do a tribute was only remembered after he scored his first.

[Victor Meldrew]

I'm with you on this Floyd.
In today's paper it said that Anton Ferdinand(a run-of-the-mill footballer) had been planning a special celebration on Saturday if he scored a goal to mark the death of Michael Jackson-why?
The good news is that he hasn't scored for 2 years so the white glove act was most unlikely.
There is a much wider subject about celebrity in general but I have almost come to accept that most youngish (big generalisation)people themselves crave celebrity for celebrity's sake and just cannot understand why anybody would see anything wrong in it.

[Deathy]

it was not as if Lampard ran over to the bench to parade a Chelsea shirt saying RIP MUM

Oh.

[cmonurz]

Re: comparing the Lampard goal 'celebration' with the Fabregas gesture, it is a bit of a red herring really as I would say that the death of your mother is a bit different to the death of a colleague.

It's not really for us to say how deeply someone feels about the death of a mother/friend. Jarque could have meant just as much to Fabregas as Lampard's mother did to him.

[Vision]

Its not footballers really though is it? Its just an extention of what the general public have been doing since Diana copped it.

oxf*rd me even on a local level some no-mark that coughed on you in Broad St dies in sudden circumstances and you can't move in Clinton's or Interflora for people wanting to comemorate the occasion by dumping stuff outside Zavvi or on some mini-roundabout. Ostentatious public grieving is about the only cottage industry this country has left.

[Jackson Corner]

Perhaps thr next goal celebration should be instead of all the players lining up doing the rocking cradle when a baby is born, they could pretend to be mourners at a funeral carrying a coffin on there shoulders.

[Jerry St Clair]

you can't move in Clinton's or Interflora for people wanting to comemorate the occasion by dumping stuff outside Zavvi or on some mini-roundabout.

I actually bought flowers to place outside Zavvi to mourn the passing of Zavvi.

Nuff respec' etc etc etc

[Hoop Blah]

I'm with Flloyd, VM and Vision on this.

These over the top expressions of grief are pretty tacky and all too often embarassing. The Chelsea one pictured being a pretty good example of how bad they can be.

[North Eaat royal]

Had to frown when reading the Sunday paper today; a picture of Fabregas raising an Arsenal shirt with 'JARQUE 21' on the back to the skies having scored in the rout on Everton. Apparently this shirt was left on the touchline for Fabregas to fetch in a 'touching' display of comradeship towards his former Spanish Under 21 team mate who died from heart failure during a training session. Begs the question what would Fabregas have done with the shirt had he not scored and of course I can't actually recall Jarque having played for Arsenal but I digress.

What planet do footballers live on, seriously? This tragic and awful story got plenty of column inches this last week, did we really need Fabregas's own personal tribute. The death of a talented young man in his prime is obviously a terrible thing to happen, but why can't footballers/celebrities deal with death in a more dignified, private way? Fabregas could perhaps have asked to attend the funeral or better still donate a month's worth of his inflated salary to charity by way of tribute, perish the thought. No, it always has to be a rather tacky grand gesture in the public eye as if Daniel Jarque was a figure of global importance. Remember the Ipswich player doing the handcuffs celebration for Luke McCormack last season? The self-importance and insularity of football and footballers is beyond belief.

I Disagree to an extent, what the Ipswich player did was out of order.

Fabregas was paying his respect to a friend who had died, we each have different ways of paying our respect.

Are you also telling me it's wrong to have a black arm band on then?

[North Eaat royal]

Are you also telling me it's wrong to have a black arm band on then?

That's what he should have done, rather than that crap he actually did.

I believe all the players had black arm bands in respect of Sir Bobby, I see it as his own way of paying respect.

I find it hard to believe that so many people seem to be having a go at someone who is simply paying respect to a dead friend

[Para Handy]

If you went to see Hamlet the day after Richard Harris had died for instance, and Michael Gambon - let us say - rotated Yorrick's skull towards the audience at the end of a soliloquy to show RIP RICHARD written upon the cranium in felt tip pen would you not think that was a bit self-indulgent?

Lol... Lose that comedy beard Floyd...and I could actually like you mate.

[floyd__streete]

Lol... Lose that comedy beard Floyd...and I could actually like you mate.

Comedy beard long since gone, I no longer look like an anorexic Brian Blessed.

[Para Handy]

In that case.. you're a top bloke. You did actually make me LOL tonight...

[LUX]

What next? RIP Rex on a Manchester United shirt when Rooney's dog dies?

Her name's Coleen, doofus.

[Para Handy]

What next? RIP Rex on a Manchester United shirt when Rooney's dog dies?

Her name's Coleen, doofus.

Ooof, unworthy of you Lux.

[Dirk Gently]

It's just another symptom of the emotional incontinence that is taking over society - no-one can simply be saddened by a death, they have to publicly show the world just how devastated they are.

qv : shrines of flowers by roadsides years after an accident, the whole Diana saga, Tyson and the pond in Woodley, etc, etc etc .....

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Its not footballers really though is it? Its just an extention of what the general public have been doing since Diana copped it.
.

I'd say Hillsborough started it, not Diana.

What started out as a small number of fans going into Anfield, with some tying scarves to railings etc, became a media circus. There seemed to be almost constant news report updating how big the blanket flowers had become across the pitch. The size of the tributes became a news event in itself.

[soggy biscuit]

Can't find the thread dedicated to footballers dying prematurely so this will do (happy new year everyone!)

Sergio Sanchez forced to retire due to a heart defect

[Super_horns]

Maybe that celebration was a bit tacky but its surely better than some players giving abuse to the fans/not even bothering to celebrating (and actually swearing like Zamora did)?

Most footballers do some sort of celebration to get themselves noticed and personally I did think it was quite a nice touch to remember a friend* (although as commented before what woyuld have happened had he not scored?)

Agree we do hear too much public grief sometimes over people dying that very few actually care or give more than a moments thought about.

*I presume they were..?