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Published 16:50 29 May 2018 BST
Updated 16:51 29 May 2018 BST
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'Someone else will have done something stupid enough that everyone will forget'.England international Raheem Sterling has generally operated under similar precepts as a professional footballer but he broke the '72 hour rule' when he reacted to The Sun's main story on their front page on Tuesday morning which suggested that Sterling shot himself in the foot by getting a tattoo of a rifle on his right leg.
The Sun highlighted how the tattoo had 'sparked fury' and drawn criticism from anti-gun campaigners, with some of them calling for the winger to be withdrawn from England's World Cup squad as a result.
Sterling subsequently took to his Instagram account to clarify that he had proceeded with the tattoo as a reminder of how he had promised never to touch guns following the death of his father, who died after being shot when the England winger was just a toddler.
Of course, it's not the first time a personal decision by Sterling has been highlighted by a national British publication with content lead. Adam Keyworth highlighted a comprehensive collection of tabloid coverage of Sterling.
National news stories concerning the player include:
Frisby found that overall, more stories were written about white athletes (43 percent) than black athletes (39 percent). Frisby also found that more than 66 percent of the crime stories involved black athletes while only 22 percent involved white athletes.
More than 70 percent of domestic violence stories involved black athletes and only 17 percent involved white athletes. Finally, 53 percent of the stories involving black athletes had a negative tone, while only 27 percent of stories about white athletes were negative. Frisby says these statistics point to an existence of stereotyping in the sports media.
“True cultural sensitivity requires the eradication of racial and ethnic stereotyping; thus, journalists and reporters must reflect on how their own unfounded beliefs about race differences in sports likely contribute to the stereotyping of black athletes as engaged in more criminal activity and innately physically gifted yet lacking in intelligence and strong work ethics,” Frisby said.
“Not only does negative media coverage serve to legitimise social power inequalities, but also it is likely to undermine black athletes’ achievements and contribute to stereotype threat.”
How much of that applies to Sterling? How many stories concerning him are written in a negative tone and how many will be written in a negative tone when England inevitably crash out of the World Cup on penalties at some stage this summer?
The gun tattoo may be considered as ill-advised in the lead up to a World Cup but is it really worse for society than systematic and systemic negative coverage of a 23-year-old who is often reported on for the most mundane and unremarkable acts? More so than the actual remarkable acts he's performed on the pitch?
There are bigger issues at play here than what Raheem Sterling gets tattooed on his leg. Like, what state is his car in today? Where will he eat in Russia?
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