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Message: [QUOTE="CaptainHook, post: 3000679, member: 8315"] I've been reading Ken Arthurson's biography 'Arko: My Game' and he had some insights into player behaviour towards the end of the book. It was published in 1997 but some of these statements could easily have been made yesterday. I thought I'd share a few quotes: 'More than ever, any time footballers play up off the field and get themselves into the headlines, it is an offence against the game they play. Too many people have drifted from the game already, to other sports, other interests. Sadly for some people, some dedicated fans have learned that there is life after football. They're going to be damned hard to get back. And the certainty is that mug behaviour from supposed sporting role models is only going to drive more away. If I have a final word to players it is this: if you want to keep playing rugby league, and earning good money from it, think hard about what you do away from the playing field...very hard.' He goes on to write: 'I think the players of the game have to be especially concerned and careful. They are richer than they have ever been in rugby league's history. They are also more vulnerable than they've ever been. I sense a distinct resentment in the community at the vast and ridiculous payments being made to footballers (although that situation is certainly not their fault!), and that resentment has translated into a significant 'turn off' factor among people who once followed the game. Blokes with a mortgage, not much money and a house full of kids, find little common ground anymore with BMW-driving, overpaid footballers, who are nudged along by managers chasing ever-bigger contracts. More than ever before the players have to care for their game - in everything they do, on and off the paddock.' [/QUOTE]

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