Manchester United rising star Jack Fletcher has been suspended six matches for his yelling of a homophobic slur during a match.
Sort of.
Last October, playing Man United’s Under 21 team, a referee heard Fletcher call an opponent a “gay boy.” Fletcher didn’t mean it as a compliment.
The Football Association — England’s soccer governing body — took a few months of investigation and handed down the six-match penalty with one caveat: It can’t be served when Fletcher would otherwise be playing a Premier League match.
Jack Fletcher, of course, is oh-so-sorry he got caught using the term and, also of course, didn’t mean it.
“I am truly sorry for the offensive word that I used in the heat of the moment,” Fletcher said after receiving the sanction, according to ESPN.
“Despite the fact that I had no intention to use the term as a homophobic insult, I completely understand that such language is unacceptable and immediately apologized after the game.”
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Jack Fletcher ‘apology’ for gay slur just like everyone else’s
Yes, this is the same refrain we hear over and over and over and over again. We’re supposed to believe that the term he called his opponent — “gay boy” — had no reference to homophobia, despite Fletcher using “gay” in his invective specifically to insult an opponent.
Instead, it’s our intelligence that is insulted.
Of course Jack Fletcher intended to use the term in a homophobic way. Of course. It’s absurd to think anyone could possibly buy into his explanation. It’s the same absurdity we heard just last week from Radko Gudas, the Anaheim Ducks captain who said he had no idea when he was saying it that calling a male opponent “c**ksucker,” and filling his yelling of the term with anger, was homophobic.
Right.
As opposed to the Gudas incident and the NHL’s complete lack of comment or action, the Football Association has at least suspended Fletcher those six matches for his use of a gay slur directed at an opponent. Even if there’s an asterisk on that suspension.
Man United has, for its part, seemingly taken its support of the LGBTQ community pretty seriously. Last year the club reportedly banned one of its fans from the stadium for three years after he allegedly posted a homophobic social media message.
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The previous year, though, ManU got into some hot water with LGBTQ fans over players not wearing a Pride jacket pre-match.
Nobody’s perfect. Including Jack Fletcher. The young player seems to have a huge upside in the Premier League and on the international level, with potentially World Cup experience in his future.
If he can learn now to not use homophobia to attack his opponents, all the better.
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