I don’t believe Fury should be removed. But as a former professional basketball player in the NBA and now as a psychologist who works in the US and Europe, I wouldn’t vote for him. And if, as in previous years, I was invited to the ceremony, I would not attend.
Some, including the Guardian’s Gaby Hinsliff, claim that sportspeople aren’t (or shouldn’t be) role models; this argument aggrieves me. The question is not whether athletes should be role models, or whether you as a parent, fan or pundit think there are copious better options outside of sport. If anyone looks up to an athlete, they’re a role model. And whatever the case, we should not exonerate any athletes for bad behaviour either on or off their field of play.
Sod off.
Athletes are athletes, it’s there in the description. Talent at shooting hoops, punching Ukrainians, trotting along faster than others, that’s the sole and only point of the enterprise. Their views on anything else are, just like those of you and I, sod all to do with their skills or talents in sports.
A boxer no more needs to accord with current day bien pensant thinking than a mechanic’s views on buggery matter to his ability to fix a car engine.