King released from jail, but has the football community turned it's back?

Mother's lock up your daughters, men lock up your girlfriend's and wives'. Former Premier League striker Marlon King has been freed from jail after serving just half his sentence for a severe sexual assault while on a night out in London. On 7th December 2008, King (a married father of two) was out celebrating scoring the winning penalty in his loan club Hull City's 2-1 win over Middlesbrough, repeatedly groped a 20-year-old woman, grabbing her bottom. When she rebuffed his advances, he punched her, giving her a split lip and broken nose before leaving the Soho Revue Bar.
And for once, the conviction actually stuck. Not too long ago, I posted a blog about footballers' indiscretions, and how more often than not, the publicity surrounding the cases and hot-shot lawyers proves to be enough to make the problems go away. The names of Jonathon Woodgate, Lee Bowyer, the 'Leicester City six' and Kobe Bryant featured prominently. But King was not so lucky, despite being represented by celebrity lawyer 'Mr Loophole,' Nick Freeman.
King is not the first professional sportsman (or footballer) to spend time on the inside - names such as Frank McAvennie, Tony Adams, Jan Molby, Duncan Ferguson, Peter Storey, George Best and Mickey Thomas have all donned a jumpsuit, while away from football, Tommy Morrison, Mike Tyson and most high-profile of all, OJ Simpson, have experiencede low-life. But in football especially, the mantra has been if you're good enough, past indiscretions can be overlooked. All of the above football players served their time for various offences (including counterfeit fraud, driving offences, assault) before being welcomed back into the football world as if nothing had happened.
Football players are in the public eye almost more so than any other profession or group of people. In that repesct, do they not have a duty of care to set a good example to younger generations, in their behaviour and action? Is it not bad for footballers to commit such dastardly crimes before continuing their lucrative careers? So to see that King is yet to sign a contract with a new club upon his release from prison. It is fair to say the former Middlesbrough, Hull City, Wigan Athletic and Nottingham Forest striker has had enough chances to set himself on the straight and narrow - he has 14 convictions driving without insurance, drink-driving, speeding, and he served his first prison sentence for receiving stolen goods while at Gillingham in 2002. The Kent club continued to pay his contract while he served his nine month sentence, but the 18-capped Jamaica striker was not so lucky second time around.
As soon as he was convicted last October, his club Wigan Athletic ripped up his contract, much in the same way as West Bromwich Albion did when Lee Hughes was found guilty of death by dangerous driving in 2004. He hardly covered himself in glory by suggesting that his victim, Emily Carr, 'did something to provoke the attack.' And before the punch, he mocked Ms Carr, saying 'i'm a multimillionaire love, I'm out of your league.' Typical football behaviour - brash, loud and above the law. Only his chairman Dave Whelan didn't share the opinion of PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor that 'everyone deserves a second chance.' Not only did he cancel King's contract, he passed a moral judgment on his former player: 'it's really upsetting and it just sets such a bad example for any young ster coming through as a professional football. He was on-loan at Hull City at the time, but i don't blame Hull at all. Marlon has to accept full responsibility. When he's served his time he will obviously be able to reume his professional football career, but he will never pull on a Wigan shirt again.'
King's agent, former professional player Tony Finnegan, said at the time he didn't envisage this problem - the phrase 'what do you expet him to do, work at McDonald's?', springs to mind. Only this hasn't been as plain sailing as King and his team thought it would be. He certainly doesn't find himslef in the same situation as fellow striker Lee Hughes. In August 2004, he was sentenced to six years inside for causing death by dangerous driving and leaving the scene of the accident. The previous autumn, Hughes, while driving in the early hours of the morning, he was involved in a car crash. A passenger in the other car, Douglas Graham, was killed, while the driver and another passenger were injured. Hughes and his passenger fled from the scene before turning themselves in the next morning. This undoubtedly lengthened his sentence, but his release on bail before the trial enabled him to help West Brom win promotion to the Premier League before having his contract cancelled.
But unlike King, the football community did not turn it's back on the former Coventry City player. To his credit, he appeared genuinely contrite in his three years on the inside. He met the daughter of his victim Mr Graham, kept up his fitness by playing for the prison football team, Featherstone Prison FC and organised a charity football match which raised £5,000 for charity, with a fellow inmate saying, 'he's trying desperately hard to give something back to the community, trying to redeem the mistakes he's made. he's devestated. All of this added up to him being released early due to good behaviour. And before he walked through Featherstone's gate, he had already signed a contract with Oldham Athletic.
Some observers saw this as slightly callous on behalf of the Lancashire club, but it is unfair to suggest Hughes has not suffered from his mistakes to some extent. He will have to live with the biggest of mistakes', for the rest of his life. His contract when he signed for Oldham (£1,800 a week) is a huge amount of money, but is less than 10% of what he was earning before his contract was cancelled at the Hawthorns. He had three years without earning any money while in jail, and had a wife and two children to support. Oldham were two divisions below the level Hughes would have been playing at when he was convicted, and he will never reach that level again.
But this isn't meant to be a sob story trying to get the tiny violins out for Hughes. He did an awful thing and was fairly punished. The difference between Hughes and King though, is the way the former reacted to the situation he found himself in. In many ways, the crime committed by King was far worse. Hughes was careless, reckless and callous, but King was vicious and arrogant and it appears h still hasn't accepted responsibility for his actions.
So maybe rather than focusing on an changing of attitudes in football, this is more of a societal issue. Everyone deserves a second chance, providing they showing genuine remorse and regret for their mistakes. Even by football's standards, King has made one mistake too many and never learns. Tony Adams' Sporting Chance clinic for the rehabilitation of sportsmen (and women) gives players across all sports the chance to do that - King could do far worse than check in now he's a free man.