BY ALAN TEMPLE – @CCP_Sport
NEIL LENNON is adamant embattled Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher deserves a second chance after admitting that the abuse and suffocating scrutiny of life as a high-profile sporting figure can foster a sense of ‘paranoia’.
Carragher is fighting for his job with the broadcaster after footage surfaced of the Liverpool legend spitting in the direction of a 14-year-old girl and her father in a moving car after being goaded. He was yesterday suspended until the end of the season, when his position will be revisited.
Lennon knows the 40-year-old personally and, despite this, insists it is impossible to excuse Carragher’s actions. He does, however, believe it is entirely out of character and a far cry from the individual he knows.
“I am not condoning what he has done, but I think everyone deserves a second chance,” said the Hibernian head coach. “It’s a split-second really bad decision he has made, it was wrong and he has been completely contrite about the whole thing.
“It is very difficult to draw a line under it. He is going to have to live with that for a while, but I don’t believe it should cost him his job or his career. It was one moment of madness and Jamie will be going through a really tough time at the minute.
“I know Jamie personally, I have met him a few times and I have always found the kid easy to deal with. That was a reaction I don’t recognise from him.
“It’s difficult to comprehend what was going through his mind, actually doing what he did. There might be more to it than what we saw on camera to possess Jamie to do that. It might have been one thing after another after another and he has just snapped. I don’t know. The abuse, if you want to call it that, seemed pretty innocuous for him to react that way. But it didn’t look good
“I do have a little sympathy for him, but I do hope that he can resurrect things for himself and put things right. We’ve all done things that we regret.”
Lennon is also better-placed than most to address the wider issues of keeping your cool when provoked, given the challenges he faced living and working in Glasgow as Celtic captain and, latterly, manager. During the most difficult period, Lennon received bullets in the post, while the scourge of sectarianism was ever-present.
However, the simple daily grind of being a well-known face and potential target for hostility is wearing in itself.
The abuse of England Rugby boss Eddie Jones by Scottish supporters following a train journey which went viral online and drew widespread criticism was all too familiar.
“It is a slightly different thing from Jamie [Carragher], but look at what happened to Eddie Jones the other week,” he continued. “That’s happened to me many, many times – and not just me. I have talked to Graeme Souness about it.
“He went through the same thing when he was managing up here. I am sure managers elsewhere go through it. It’s unfair.
“You become sensitive, you become paranoid and it is very difficult not to react to certain things.
“Sometimes you just want to be able to get away from that an relax and that can be difficult, no matter where you go, you are instantly recognisable and people want to stop you. I was going through the airport on Tuesday in Dublin to do the telly and getting stopped and, although you don’t mind, it can get pretty wearing after a while.”
The omnipresence of camera phones and social media have only exacerbated that issue, according to Lennon.
“Andy Flintoff [former England cricket international] was talking about an incident that happened to him in Dublin,” Lennon continued. “A guy came up to him, started talking – then tried to sling a punch at him. He had to hold him to the ground and he couldn’t do anything just in case someone was filming it.
“He had to not only defend himself, but act as a peacemaker as well. Anybody in any other walk of life would have just defended themselves as vigorously as they could.
“I’ve been out many times with my friends or family and people were taking photographs of you without your consent while you are sitting having a meal or a glass of wine or a beer, next thing you are on Facebook. I think that’s an intrusion.
“Everybody says you are role models. I get that. But they are human beings as well and they are surely allowed a bit of private time. This is obviously a different thing we are talking about but a lot of people are fair game and it’s not right.”
