Not Guilty for Stevie G. Will the Fans Forgive and Forget?

By: Laurie | July 25th, 2009

So many drunken footballers, I lose track. Let’s see. It was John Terry who peed on the floor and Nicklas Bendtner who left the bar with his pants down and Steven Gerrard who beat up the DJ. Right?

Actually, never mind on the Stevie G one. He may have been a self-admitted “7 out of 10″ on the drunk scale that night and thrown several punches, but according to the jury he’s absolutely not guilty of affray for last November’s drunken brawl.

They acquitted him yesterday after just 75 minutes of negotiations, agreeing that he’d acted in self-defense, genuinely believing he was about to be attacked. A conviction could have resulted in his being put away for three years. Which would not have been the best outcome for Stevie or for Liverpool.

An interesting part of this was that all of his non-footballing mates fell on their swords and pleaded guilty before the trial, perhaps to keep Stevie’s case from being tainted by being associated with mere fallible mortals.

So it’s over now, and Mr. G is ready to get back to football. Is the public willing to forgive and forget?

A scan of the news says: it looks like it. Gerrard generally seems like a decent guy, and everybody now seems more concerned about the traitorous Xabi Alonso’s desires to escape, not to mention the horrible American owners and their mountain of debt.

But at least one writer wasn’t quite ready to let it go just yet. A sampling of a much longer piece:

Stevie G is the likely Liver-lad no longer. He is a grown-up family man with responsibilities to his wife and children. He is a fully fledged footballer who carries the ambitions of his club and the dreams of his country on his usually willing shoulders.

That can be a burden but the huge rewards make it one worth bearing. Personally, I believe Gerrard will remember his responsibilities from now on by never forgetting he once lurched into a demeaning and violent dispute over what music should be played in some drinking den.

If not quite the day the music died, this was the evening when yet another verse in our love affair with football struck a discordant note. What made it more ghastly was that a hitherto upstanding citizen of the game should be involved.

All true. Very true. But I think it’s time for deep breaths here.

Repeat after me: It’s over now. Nobody died. He can still kick a football.

Plus it’s not like he did something truly unforgivable.

Like, y’know, transfering to ManU.