Damned when they do, and weak when they don't

One of the Prides of London are it's very many football clubs.
Two of my local clubs have achieved promotion this year - AFC Wimbledon being promoted from the Blue Square Conference South league as Champions, and Brentford returning to League One as the Champions of League 2.

And this week London hosted two Champions League semi-final matches in the space of two days.

So there is a lot of football pride and excellence in the City.

Today however was a day for newspaper headlines and sensationalised photographs. In case you didn't see the match, Chelsea were knocked out of the competition by a goal scored in the 3rd minute of injury time last night, and the main contention is that the Norwegian referee dismissed no less than 4 penalty claims - any of which would probably have been given more times than dismissed on any other day, in any other game. I am not a Chelsea supporter, but I understand their dismay.

However, the players vented their frustration and anger at the referee is scenes that some commentators have described as "outrageous" and "unacceptable".

So when was the last time you had a bad day at the office? When was the last time that you put your heart and soul into something at the office and had it torn to shreds, broken and crushed to dust in front of your eyes by someone or something beyond or control - a dream shattered through no fault of your own?
And how did YOU react? If you didn't react with shock, horror, anger, shouting, screaming then was your heart really in the project in the first place?

By no means are these actions condonable - but they are understandable when you have worked your socks off and had that effort trampled on.

And so it is with the players last night. I don't agree with what they did - but I do understand it. And in honesty - I probably would have done the same thing - especially knowing my own reactions to some things on the sports field.

These players who earn more in 7 days than I earn in three years actually showed that they have passion and love for their work - not that they are just there to make up the numbers and earn fat salaries to spend frivilously. And indeed - had they gone down quietly, you can be sure that the critics would have marked them spineless, money grabbing and without passion.

No, what they did is probably not right, and we would never teach our kids to react in that manner - but honestly would we have acted any different - and in fact have we ourselves acted differently in similar situations in our places of work?

Let them who are without blame, cast the first stone...
I am not sure there are many people who could or should be casting stones.