On drugs? It helps to be famous
Mikey 16 comments
Ben Cousins is a lucky man. Most drug addicts don't receive the benefit of being flown to another country to enter a rehabilitation program at someone else's expense. But that is precisely the treatment he is receiving.
If the West Coast Eagles Football Club wants to foot the $60,000 bill for his treatment then that's their business, no matter how wrong we all think it is. My main concern is with what happens afterwards.
Assuming Cousins walks away a clean man; will the WCEFC offer him a position on the team? In February he did a runner at the sight of a Booze bus, abandoning his car and passengers.
He did turn himself in afterwards but at the time more people were concerned with how Cousins behaviour was being interpreted by our youth, as he does, like other football players in his league, carry the burden of being a role model to our children. The ones who look to him for inspiration.
So if he was to be offered a place back on the team, what sort of a message is that sending? 'It's OK to do drugs because someone else will pick up the treatment bill and you can go back to the way things were?' Some people might see it that way.
And will that message carry over to the other players? Some of them are already suspected of having drug and alcohol problems, so will the football club be as generous to them? If not, then we are sending a different message to our youth: Famous people can get away with anything.
Then there is the other issue of performance enhancement. Olympic athletes are stripped of their medals if performance enhancing content is found in their blood. While we can only speculate Cousins was flying high any time he gave a match winning performance, questions still remain: Did he earn that Brownlow Medal legitimately? Does he deserve to keep it?
On the compassionate side I genuinely hope he gets better. But he has sadly forfeited his right to show our children how to behave.
Muzza
Sunday 15th April 2007 | 10:44 PMBen probably never played with drugs in his system. The AFL testing policy is quite strict and allows them to pick and choose who and when they test and I believe Ben has been tested quite a lot.
Sure he is a role model but when it comes down to it he is only human after all. If parents can't sit down and discuss these issues with their children then what hope do they have?
Instead of harping on about the negative aspects of this turn it into a positive to drive home the damage and destruction drugs may cause. Who knows, seeing an 'idol' fall may actually steer more people away from drug use!
Alegra
Sunday 15th April 2007 | 11:09 PMhas to be said he should pay for it himself which is one focus of this story. Putting a positive spin on this can only come after his rehab if it is a success. parents will sit their kids down and say what needs to be said regardless of the outcome.
Lurka
Monday 16th April 2007 | 11:22 AMIf they have drug testing on the players how could Cousins have possibly passed? Drug testing is supposed to be able to pick up traces in your body that are weeks old. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21426120-2,00.html">According to this it's a 3 strikes and you are out policy which means he could have been playing high.
Gilly
Thursday 19th April 2007 | 01:25 PMBen Cousins is nothing more than a barcoded AwFuL product.
His soul use is to help turn a profit for a multi million dollar company. What if that company treated there products like they where actualy people.
We are obviously responsible for our own actions and by default of bieng part of a community we are also responsible to those around us.
andrew
Thursday 19th April 2007 | 06:17 PMben ran from the booze bus because he had white powder on him and dove into the river. no-one forced him to take drugs, he is a big boy and would know what it does to your body. no sympathy from this person.
Compadre
Thursday 19th April 2007 | 07:59 PMCousins makes half a million per year. How can he not afford to pay for his own rehab? Even if he had squandered all that money, selling that gold Mercedes of his would be more than enough to pay for it.
Concerned
Saturday 21st April 2007 | 10:31 PMI pray that no-one in your families gets addicted to drugs!
test
Wednesday 25th April 2007 | 06:57 AMsorry to be a pain, but I had to test your form... (I love its design by the way !)
Slatz
Wednesday 2nd May 2007 | 04:34 PMBen is a product. A product with at least three seasons left in him. The money invested in getting him back playing football is a small price to pay when you consider how difficult it is to find a player like Cousins.
You can compare it to renovating an old house, it will have more value after the investment.
Regardless of weather you are an AFL footballer or not, if your stocks are as high as Ben's, the investment in rehab makes sense.
Gilly
Sunday 13th May 2007 | 11:53 PMBen like all AwFuL players is not a product. While he is treated like a product, he will never be allowed to make the mistakes that everyone else makes, and get away with them.
Like Slats said, he may have 3 years of footy left and then he is a has been. Ben is a bloke who needs help. I hope if any one here needs help, you have somebody to turn to.
Ben is not a house or a car or even a wise investment, he is a man treated as an income to a greedy company.
Some football clubs are allowing there players to socialise and drink as a club to avoid what is happening outside of the club and its boundries. Boys will be boys.
Ashliegh + Kaylor
Thursday 28th June 2007 | 04:01 PMWTF he is a normal person just with a bit more money but he should still cop the normal punishement and john worsfold needs to pull his finger out of his ass.....geez open your eyes sunshine role models should cop harder punishement and the media is nothing now as to what it was ages ago as not as much people fucked up
Katey
Friday 27th July 2007 | 11:15 PMWHO GIVES A DAMN! He is back--Finally...
We all make mistakes, give the man a break.. He is Fit and helathy a playing better than ever..Who cares how much the rehab cost, all that really matters is that he got the help he needed. Yer he may be a role model-he showed us all everyone is entitled to make mistakes its how you handle them and he is an inspiration coming back from something like this... He is only human, he can't be perfect ALL the time. So all you people dissing him get over it. Don't sit there and dis him im sure you have done stuff you ain't prod of...
Anyway.. That was the past. Don't live in the past, how are you supposed to move on? Ben sure has!
GO WEST COAST WOOT WOO
awesome person
Monday 24th September 2007 | 08:03 PMur wrong ben is awesome!! and hot!
Wednesday 17th October 2007 | 11:27 PM
clearly rehab didnt work. now he's sacked. big deal, ben is one player, he took drugs, now accept the consequences. Get over it fellas the AFL isnt about 'ben cousins', if one player cant follow the rules get rid of them and get on with the game.
Apparently, you were right. He got out of the drug rehab, but he has new problems. I read in the yesterday news paper that St Kilda had appeared to be the only club willing sign Cousins, who only recently was given the green light to resume his career after the AFL commission officially lifted his 12-month ban, imposed last November, for bringing the game into disrepute over a string of drugs-related offences.
Mattus
Sunday 15th April 2007 | 09:59 PMFrom sources, the actual cost of the rehab is more in the line of $150 - 200,000. So, the club are asking the AFL to foot the bill for about 1/3 of the total cost.
Ok, enough facts. Opinion now. Ben Cousins, as all addicts, must take responsibility for his own life. He must realise that people won't wipe his arse past his footy career - I mean, a lot of people want to wipe that smile off his face now, let alone in 4 or 5 years time.
All drug addicts, no matter what the substance, need o be assured, be need to gain control of their life. I don't care if he plays another AFL game (probably the Dockers side of me), as long as he gets over his addiction - Totally.