Meet me at the corner flag!

Okay, let’s be clear, Craig Bellamy is wild. He is rash, unpredictable, and probably would be a career criminal if he wasn’t a footballer. He’s got more tattoos than John Mayer’s right arm, more baggage than an Airbus landing at Heathrow, more teeth than Mr. Ed, and he’s played for more teams than Shaquille O’Neal. Oh, and let’s not forget that he’s an exceptional golfer as well…

I’m sure all you United fans hate this guy right now, and you should. He decked one of your supporters after he ran to the pitch on the way to that thrilling finish to the derby match this weekend. But, let’s be honest, if you were running onto the pitch, wouldn’t you head for Toure or Lescott? For God’s sake man, stay away from the Nutter with the Putter. I know, I know—the fan was celebrating a great win, but he really took a wrong turn after the “4 minutes” of stoppage time. Good old Craig found his way over to this guy and let him know what he thought. Hey, this fan should be thanking his lucky stars that Bellamy wasn’t on the 18th green at St. Andrew’s or else he would have ended up with a pitching wedge in his face. (As you can tell I think the fact that Bellamy beat the crap out of John Arne Riise during a training session when they were both at Liverpool is awesome.)

Yeah, yeah, I know this sets a bad example for kids or something. And this certainly isn’t “fair play” or good sportsmanship. But who wants to watch that mess? Not me! Craig Bellamy is a walking, talking train wreck. I bet he won’t make it to December before he and Adebayor kill each other. The best part is City is defending him. Today, City assistant manager Mark Bowen said of the confrontation “Obviously I can’t quote exactly what he said but it was something like ‘Get off the pitch.’” Are you kidding me? I wish Man City had just issued a statement saying, “That ridiculous idiot that ran on the pitch got everything he deserved. Moreover, the fan in question should be glad Stephen Ireland had already gone in the dressing room or else he may have been killed. Welcome to Manchester.”

In a past life, I was known to watch a little NASCAR. It really isn’t all that bad. Dale Earnhardt, amongst many others, was a character. He would wreck, spin, hit, and run over any other redneck that got in his way. And when he was asked about it, he said he would do it again and didn’t care what you thought about it. I mean some of these guys wrecked each other at the finish line and then got out and strangled each other on top of the flaming wreckage. That’s just awesome.

The point is that characters like Bellamy, Earnhardt, and Dennis Rodman make sports fun to watch. We love talking about them. We love watching them. We love hating (or loving, if you’re a United fan) the FA when they investigate this mess and punish these guys. But most of all, we love it when they make the game we all love even better by inserting a little extra drama in a fantastic game of football.