Here we go again.
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Rugby league star Paul Gallen tweets an offensive comment and all of a sudden he’s suffering from depression.
Call me cynical, but is he really?
The National Rugby League must have their doubts, because they have just slapped him with a $50,000 fine and have banned him from playing for Australia next year.
Surely if he was that ill they would have shown him far more compassion.
Hopefully Gallen isn’t just “playing the depression card”, because that would be nothing short of an absolute insult to all those who actually suffer from it.
The reason for my cynicism follows the recent revelations of other high-profile NRL players including Darius Boyd, Reni Maitua, Jamal Idris and Ben Barba.
All have recently told the media they have battled the condition for years.
Funny thing though, all their revelations have come after they have been nabbed playing up, or have fallen foul of the law.
Years ago, if a footballer was caught out, he simply put his hand up and admitted he had a huge night on the drink.
Usually he just copped his penalty on the chin and moved on.
Not so now. The public relations companies are called in and the player in question goes into damage control.
Gallen posted his tweet while holidaying in Hawaii with fellow footballer Mitchell Pearce.
Dare I say that’s interesting in itself.
Pearce is a known “party boy” and for his sins he was unceremoniously dumped from the NSW State of Origin team earlier this year.
Despite his illness Gallen was aware enough to delete the tweet just five minutes after he posted it.
He then apologised.
Boyd famously trashed a hotel room and then revealed he was depressed at the time.
To recover he took an overseas cruise around the Greek Islands.
The others have received unwanted publicity for a variety of reasons including alcohol abuse, assault and general poor behaviour.
I don’t pretend to be any sort of expert in this field, but the depression sufferers I know say they can barely get out of bed, let alone board an overseas flight.
They say they wouldn’t wish the “black dog” on their worst enemy because it is so soul destroying.
One NRL player genuinely diagnosed with depression was former Queensland and Australian player Peter Jackson.
He didn’t misbehave during his career but was later found dead in a motel room.
Jackson had taken a drug overdose.
I don’t think anything more needs to be said.