Jake Humphrey: Time to give football’s bad boys the boot and celebrate Team GB

 
6 August 2012

Yesterday was very strange. I was live on BBC Three at about 11pm after Usain Bolt had run his incredible race, the Olympic Park was still full of people and Frank Skinner joined me in the studio.

After discussing the Olympics in general we moved on to the subject of role models — we were talking about how we have been celebrating the wrong kind of things in this country by focusing so much on footballers.

Fast cars, amazing jewellery, tattoos and bad boy behaviour — sometimes the worse someone behaves, the bigger the hero they are!

But in the last couple of weeks watching Team GB, we have realigned our parameters for role models. When I came off air I checked my phone and Frank’s name was trending on Twitter! People had seen the interview and were instantly agreeing with our sentiment.

I think it seems to be the general feeling in the Olympic Park. I had spent the day with Mark Cavendish and he gets mobbed everywhere he goes but he’s just a normal guy that does what he loves.

I think we should celebrate the fact that our Olympians get the chance to show the country what they can do just once every four years.

Most of the time they don’t get a Lottery grant or have enough money to avoid having a job on the side.

They train away from the paparazzi and fans and then get one opportunity to perform.

Our other sports people in this country get many chances throughout the year. Look at Sir Steve Redgrave — he had one every four years to win Olympic gold medals.

I think the Games have shown that maybe we have been celebrating the wrong things. To walk around the Olympic Park seeing people with flags and singing God Save the Queen is something you would never have expected six months ago.

A year ago today, London was literally burning because of the riots. But now the city is full of pride, not just for London but for the country and our athletes. They don’t do it because they want to be rich, they do it because they have pride for what they do and for their country.

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