News of the death of Robert Enke is a tragic and unnecessary reminder, on November 11, that football is a sideshow for most of us, even those who make our living writing about and thinking about the game.
Football, we can joke, is more important than life and death. But we know that that famous line was a joke and that the opposite is, or at least should be, true.
I stood on London Bridge at 11am this morning, looking in mottled sunlight and private silence at a gleaming city that has arisen beneath skies that were once, in fading memory of older generations, a battlefield. This is what we are supposed to do at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month; a simple act to remember those who gave us freedom.
It is a gesture, along with wearing a poppy, that is supposed to be simple and was designed to be available to everyone, to remind us that we are all equal in our mortality. The shallow, confected row about poppies on matchday shirts dishonoured those that it purportedly elevated, bringing shame on the journalists responsible.
The silence and the wearing of a poppy are gestures that I strongly believe in supporting, and arguing for. They are also gestures we are free to ignore; that is part of freedom. Yet none of the clubs involved in this dispute were ignoring Remembrance and football, more than almost any branch of society, is able to encourage general respect for the lives of others.
Just as this and other nations around the world remember their dead on 11 November, so football commemorates the lives of its dead. Sometimes these are young talents cut down in accidents and the sadness is of a piece, though mercifully on nothing like the scale and without the wider meaning, of today's remembrance. Sometimes venerable figures have reached their three score and plenty more than 10, and we can justly celebrate lives.
Football is a venue for private as well as public mourning. Four years ago, on the day I was due to be best man at a wedding, instead with the groom's family and other friends I went to The Valley, where my friend Simon had been a season-ticket holder before his tragic death, to remember and celebrate a life. We could have sat somewhere numb and silent that day, but it felt right to recall Simon as he had been.
We can allow football's emotions to spill over into hate, something seen in the despicable debasement of individuals who taunt rivals over Munich or Hillsborough, or Heysel or the Superga crash. But football should accept no lessons from a media that can exploit grief and desecrate the memory of the dead. And more generally, nowhere in the country will more people jointly have observed the Remembrance silence than at sporting events, with football stadiums to the fore.
Now, and this weekend and onwards, football will commemorate Robert Enke. The memorials to the Germany goalkeeper in Hanover have been put up by people who feel that they knew someone they never met. There is a lot that is wrong with football but its culture of bringing us together in unexpected and appropriate ways in grief and Remembrance is something of which the game should, quietly, be proud.
Philip Cornwall
Football Should Be Proud Of Its Grief...
Now let's hear what you've got to say about this item... or anything else happening in the world of football. Send in your opinions, rants, praise or abuse to: theeditor@football365.com
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Your Comments
makluse
"Proud of what football is able to become when it does unite under circumstances like now is one thing, but football need to take care not to make a hero out of the likes of Enke and make what he did seem acceptable. There are a lot of impressionable people out there who when they see the adoration Enke has received in the past few days might consider this a viable option.
I have first hand experience of this, two of my team mates committed suicide in the past year. The first we did everything we thought we should to give him a good send off; well it back fired greatly as another team mate saw the reverence everyone gave him and thought that was for him as well.
I cannot pretend to understand how some people¿s minds work to come to this decision but there are people who do. We should not get carried away and end up glorifying what Robert Enke did to the determent of people who are still struggling with the likes of depression etc.
I must commend his family for coming out and talking about the issue so openly, this is a sore on our society that needs greater work and people than me working on it, just lets not get carried away with patting ours selves on the back to much.
"
goon
"on a tangent - i just read in the papers about drogba donating £3mil to build a hospital in the ivory coast. you might despise him as a player but as this article points out it is only a game and this would suggest his heart is in the right place. i am sure he is not the only footballer to do such a thing. i remember george weah being very involved with the development of liberia. football is a community, a place to find solace at times, it should also be a force for human good. after all, what would look better on an episode of mtv cribs "let me show you the garage, i have 5 bentleys" or "this is the peadiatric wing""
gar_from_dublin
"puts everything in to perspective."
fortycoats
"Gizmoduck, i dont have the personal experience that you have so your opinion easily outweighs mine, but for what its worth, to view suicide as a selfish act isn't right as it implies a logical train of thought in somebody who is experiencing mental anguish that the majority of us cannot comprehehend. Thats an argument for somewhere other than a football website though I suppose. I thought this was a very honest and well written article and I genuinely believe that the thoughts of the vast majority of football fans around the world are with Robert Enke's family and friends at this time. "
garzer
"Great article Phillip. The Enke thing was particularly affecting today. It is always a shock to hear that somebody with such a good life on the surface chose to take such such a tragic course.
Also, I know it's besides the point but London wasn't technically a battlefield during the war.....
"
Little_Dutch
"This is a quite excellent piece, completely and utterly upholding of the quiet dignity it seeks to uphold and pruport."
Dave_Mack
"A wonderful piece of journalism, Philip, that surely no one could genuienly disagree with.This truly is something football can be proud off and by acknowledging it you bring perspective to our normal rants about refs and opposing clubs and players! When it comes to what really matters, with the sad exception of a very small minority,football fans are all members of the one family."
ragnarok
"im sending this piece comment 4rm Cape Town SA, & i just want 2 say that this article reminded me what my parents sacrificed 4me to b able 2 enjoy the freedoms i have now.. My heart goes out 2 Enke's Family."
ragnarok
"Being 4rm Cape Town SA , I knw all about death,hardship etc, bt the only thing that makes life worthwhile these days is football! My condolenses 2 Enke's fam!"
Gandhi
"Great article. Well done Phil.
I understand its a debatable topic that can draw passionate and strong views from both side of the spectrum. I am of the opinion that depression is a horrible disease and to view suicide as simply a choice a person makes is both naive and ignorant.
Regardless, as a person who, prob like many f365 readers, has lost someone close to them i would like to be able to log on to a football website and not see the person who i loved and who i greatly miss called 'selfish'. Their life was far to important and appreciated to be simplified so crudely.
So f365 i would greatly appreciate if the comments posted by Gizmoduck were removed. It makes a mokery of the spirit of the article"
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