Men, Football and Emotion.

Recently, Denis Wise came out to say that the violence at the Carling Cup final was an example of how there's still passion in the game. I personally believe that's a pile of shit.

Men, generally, [from now on through this post, when I refer to 'men' I mean the 20-50 year old, Western, straight demographic who feature in the news so much] aren't all liberated souls like myself. Men older than me (I'm not going to tell you my age explicitly but you'll get the picture) still think losing a fun game of bowling to their girlfriend is one of the cardinal sins.

Indeed, thanks to society and it's unwritten rules men keep a lot of emotion repressed on a day-to-day basis despite all the strides made over the last few decades. Sport, which is often mixed with alcohol, is an acceptable outlet for male emotion, on the pitch and off.

Football specifically is one thing which seems to have slipped through the radar of social acceptability. Gazza crying, Psycho screaming - especially since the 90s it's became very acceptable to show emotion through indeed.

So, the reason things like the Carling Cup final happened, as well as the hilarity caused by World Cup is because football has transformed into one of the recognised outlets for all kinds of emotion (including anger, although anger seems to seep through most parts of the male behavioral cycle). From individuals who sit in a family pub at midday on a Saturday and scream obscenities at a wide screen TV to Hooligans whose highlight of the week involves squaring up against another bunch of testosterone-pumped 'football fans'.

On one hand it's a plus that men have a decent outlet for their emotions in this crazy world, and it's not as if women get emotional over every little thing (Well, that's a point of debate). It'd be better if all men followed the lead of liberated males like myself and found other outlets for their passions and emotions, but that might just be hard cheese. I mean, it'd be nice if people didn't beat up Doctors and Nurses, or if Coca-Cola didn't steal water from poor countries, but they do. So, yeah. Hard cheese.