In 1983 Melle Mel, rapping front man for Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, wrote "White Lines," an electro track ostensibly about the dangers of cocaine abuse. Yet underlying the Just Say No message ("Don't Do It!") is a manic ode to the 'joy' of blow ("Now we're having fun, baby!"). The song is remarkable in how it straddles the (white) line between NY's post-disco coke-mania and Reagan's anti-drug crusade, summed up best in the line "twice as sweet as sugar/twice as bitter as salt."
Echoing Melle Mel's duplicitous attitude to drugs is Jose Mourinho's attitude toward diving. Mourinho felt it necessary to go off on one of his most loyal tradesmen, Didier Drogba, along with Torres, Ronaldo, and Van Persie (?), for purposely going to ground to get a foul. Yet Mourinho went on to remark, "I hate diving, but I'm not happy if a player is kicked by somebody in the box and he tries to remain standing."
I'm sorry Jose, but if a player is kicked in the box and decides to go down when there is an option to remain standing, that player is simulating. That is a dive, a yellow card offense.
You'd be naive to think that Mourinho is alone in pushing this sort of sophistry. The Ferguson's, Wenger's and Mourinho's are putting both players and referrees in an impossible position by asking them to determine, on the fly, the razor-thin line between 'diving' and 'not trying to remain standing.' You can't have your blow and snort it too. Refs need to go public on this issue.
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